


Crescent Moon

by FreakCub



Category: Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-11-08
Packaged: 2019-06-14 18:13:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 8
Words: 43,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15394533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreakCub/pseuds/FreakCub
Summary: Bella has moved to Forks, leaving behind all of the painful memories tied to Phoenix. When she starts school again a certain cowboy catches her eye. Will Jasper be able to heal the hole in Bella's heart? A/U





	1. Chapter 1

I sat on the plane, tapping a pattern into the arm rest. I was both looking forward to and dreading moving to Forks. I had lived in Phoenix with my mum for as long as I can remember. It was sunny, and I was used to it. Forks was a cold and wet place. But the more I thought about Phoenix, the more I realised that I had nothing tying me down other than the sun. 

My parents had divorced when I was still a baby. My mum, being her usual self, ran away, and for some reason took me with her.  
My mother was a useless person that I loved because I had to. When I was younger I could always say she meant well, that she tried to be a good mum. But the older I got, the more I realised how untrue that was.

My mum was a heartless floozy bitch and her husband was worse. When it was just me and my mum, things were okay, not great but I could deal with it. She acted like a child most of the time causing me to become the adult. I had to get a job as soon as I was able, I had to do all the grocery shopping, I had to make sure the bills were paid on-time, I had to clean her up when she passed out in her own vomit, I had to deal with everything. 

But I could deal with it, we had a system. The time she started drinking more, taking drugs, and taking her bad life choices out on me, was around the time I knew she didn’t mean well, that she didn’t care about being a good mum. Though I still didn’t want to believe it. That was when she bought Phil home.  
He started out as her dealer, then they started fucking. I came back home from school a few times to them fucking on the couch, Phil would raise his head to look at me whilst pounding into her, telling me to get started on dinner, smiling with his slowly eroding teeth.

I tried to tell her that she could do better, that it didn’t have to be him. She just looked at me, grabbed me by the collar and slapped me in the face. She threatened that she would lock me in the dark room for 2 days if I said anything bad about Phil. I never spoke about it again.  
The dark room was from her 2-week phase of photography. She had me get the basement converted into a dark room for her pictures when I was around 10. Her phases didn’t last long but she was adamant that she have a dark room. Surprise, surprise she never used it. Not for pictures anyway. If I didn’t get 100% on a test, or didn’t make the right dinner for the dealers she was screwing, or did anything that she decided she didn’t like, she would lock me in the dark room.

If hell was personalised for each individual, mine would be that room.

She would lock me in for days at a time, often without food or water, simply because she’d forget. Then when she remembered, she’d throw a few slices of stale bread and a small bottle of water down.   
I was never locked in for more than a week at a time though, I handled everything in the house, so she couldn’t deal when I was in there for too long. And that was when I found my way to survive it. I would just need to be as useful as possible, so she wouldn’t be able to lock me away, I just had to do what she said so that she wouldn’t lock me away.   
That didn’t really change much when Phil started coming around. I still just had to be a helpful as I could. But I found out that there was one thing worse than being locked away; and that was not being locked away. Phil seemed to have this way of making my mum seem like Mother Theresa. The only way to make my hell worse was by adding him. He was a druggy, an alcoholic and his favourite pass time was hurting me.

No matter the occasion he loved to throw me around, get in a few punches, maybe break a few bones and then sit down with a nice cold beer or twenty. The best part for him was the fact that he could then blame any injury on my clumsiness and nobody would delve any deeper. I had thought about telling someone, I did when it first started but no one takes a kid seriously, and when Phil was questioned, he put on the charm, so they thought I was lying and them and beat me to the point where he had to call the school up to tell them I had mono because I couldn’t move. 

He had broken my nose, my right arm, my left leg, my jaw, cracked and broke all of my ribs and whipped me till my back was raw. He then locked me in the dark room and called his shady doctor friend to fix me up.   
And that wasn’t the worst part. A week after they were married, which was about 2 months after they met, he started giving me weird looks and doing weird things like massaging my shoulders, light groping. I didn’t know what to do then, I had hoped that if I didn’t say anything then he would stop. He didn’t. And it got worse and worse. _Cigarette smoke blown in my face, the smell of whisky breath against my cheek, being pushed against the cold, hard wall._  
I shook my head to expel the images from my mind. I stretched and opened my eyes, when did I close them? 

I sighed, I just needed to not think about it, about them. I wasn’t with them anymore, I was far away.   
I took a deep breath and put on my usual mask of calm and disinterest. That was the way to survive with Phil. For the most part. Not reacting to anything got my out of a lot of tough spots. The louder I cry or scream, the more he hurts me.

I sighed again. I needed a distraction. At least we were near Forks. I was going to be living with my dad Charlie. Charlie was a man of few words, he cared deeply but didn’t know how to express himself. This was half the reason he lost the custody trial. That and my mum screwed the judge. I don’t know why she tried so hard to keep me. She has made it known that she never wanted me.   
Charlie knew what kind of woman she was, which is why he tried to get custody of me. The heartbreak on his face when he lost was the most emotion I had ever seen on his face. I was around 13 at the time, and I used to spend every summer with Charlie. They are the happiest memories that I have. And when he lost the custody trial he also somehow lost the right to get me in the summer. I don’t even know if that’s how it works but apparently screwing the judge can get you any verdict.

I sighed again for what felt like the ten thousandth time, I need to keep my mind distracted, I should be good at this by now.  
I was also excited to see people in Forks, though I didn’t really know too many. But there was my friend Jacob who lived on the reservation who I hadn’t seen since I was 13 and my friend Shanna who kind of lived everywhere. She was great, she has always been there for me, and she’s the only one who knows the full story about my mum and Phil. And I’m the only one who knows her story. She is kind of supernatural. I know, it sounds crazy but it’s true. She told me when we were about 10 years old. She levitated some books in the room to prove it to me when I didn’t believe her. 

I remember not feeling as shocked as I should have been, Shanna was worried that I wouldn’t accept her but that was never an issue. I asked her why she told me, she grinned at me and cryptically said that it might be helpful in future, and will help with the shock. I’d not thought about that for a while, but I’d not seen Shanna for a few years.   
When I decided that was going to leave my mum, I had called her straight away. We hadn’t spoken for a few months but no matter how long it’s been we are able to talk to each other as if it’s only been a day.   
I remember being reduced to tears whilst telling her my leaving plan. She helped me calm down and fully supported me, she was whooping and cheering as I was saying that I deserved a better life. I was 18 so I should be considered an adult, but my mum decided to work more of her whore magic and got an order saying that I had to have a carer.  
Shanna had come up with a plan for me, but I had to be 18. I had more of a say of what I did when I got to 18, despite the order. She set everything up, she contacted my dad, or Papa Swan as she called him, booked my plane tickets and made sure that my mum and Phil were away for some time. I have no idea how she planned that out, but I imagine it was a long a drawn-out plan. We both knew that they’d be angry when they found I was gone, but we were both hoping that they would just give up, or that I would be protected enough for them to not be able to hurt me.

She also made sure that she would be arriving in Forks not long after me, I was hoping that she’d also be running away from her psycho adopted father, but I wasn’t too sure. She didn’t tell, and I didn’t ask, it was both better and worse for us that way, I’d learnt that the hard way.  
Phil went away somewhere to meet with some businessman who he’d been talking to for a while about some baseball related job, and my mum went with him. That was the sign for me to pack my things and head to the airport. We had agreed that it was better to have a subtle signal like that rather than her calling or messaging me. No company in their right mind would draft Phil for an important job, which is why that was our signal.  
I sighed again, stretching out as the pilot announced our landing. I sat up ready to move, I was still nervous about meeting Charlie again. I remember us being pretty similar people, and I hoped that it wouldn’t be too uncomfortable for him to have me around again.  
I don’t know if I could be the same little girl for him, I didn’t want him to be disappointed that the person coming back was a shattered version of his daughter.  
I started to doubt this whole plan as the plane finally landed and everyone left. Two things kept me moving through the airport looking for my dad, who was supposed to pick me up. One was the memory of my dad’s face as the judge ruled that he couldn’t have custody of me, and the other was Shanna’s words telling me that it was time to nut up. I grinned at the latter and sped up, my neck craning looking for my father.  
I found him trying to dodge a crowd of people whilst searching with a frown on his face. I grinned, he looked the same. I ran over to him, and when he caught sight of me a rare, toothy smile appeared, and he opened his arms as I crashed into him, wrapping my arms around him. We stayed like that for a few seconds before both of our reserved shyness came back. We separated and dad, cleared his throat, his cheeks getting a little red from embarrassment.  
“It’s good to see you Bells,” he said in a nervous gruff voice. I knew this must be hard for him, he was never good at emoting and he probably knows a little bit of what I had to go through in Phoenix and doesn’t know how to react.

I smiled at him, “It’s good to see you to dad,” and I truly meant it, in this moment there was no doubt that I wanted to be here, no feeling of wanted to run away. I felt happy, happy with no strings attached, no weight in the back of my head reminding me how broken I am, as if everything in Phoenix didn’t happen. It was the best 3 seconds of my life. The weight slowly became known again, but the fact that just seeing my dad again could bring that kind of feeling gave me a spark of hope. Maybe my life didn’t always have to suck. I’ll savour it until the realist side of my brain decided to wake up.  
Charlie smiled guiding me towards the cruiser, ah the cruiser. I would have to suffer through the embarrassment of being escorted round in this thing. Even whilst sitting in the front of it I felt like a criminal, it drew so much attention. Just being the new kid in town would be sure to draw more attention than I would ever want, but the cruiser makes it so much worse.  
I kept a calm mask with a polite smile on my face whilst getting into the car. Charlie started driving heading towards Forks and my new home. That word felt foreign to me, home. I decided not to think about it. We stayed in a comfortable silence as he drove, and I watched as we drove past forest and into the small town. We had passed a small hardware shop and a row of small house when Charlie started to speak. 

He cleared his throat, “Umm, I know that you probably aren’t comfortable with me driving you around in the cruiser, so I bought you a little present. It’s a truck, I thought you might feel more comfortable having something of your own to drive.”

I stared at him for a few seconds with no emotion on my face. He wanted to get me a truck? A truck for me? Why would he get something for me? The questions kept swirling around in my head. I noticed that he was waiting for a response when he nervously cleared his throat.

I shook my head slightly a smiled at him, “Thank you, but I was thinking of getting a job and saving up for one.”

He frowned slightly, “You don’t need to get a job, just focus on studying and living the life you should have had.” he frowned again and then went back to looking nervous, “I also already bought it.”  
I raised my eye brows in shock, he already bought it? Why? I haven’t done anything for him, why would he do this for me?  
He spoke whilst I was trying to make words come out of my mouth. “It’s really old but it runs well, I bought it off Billy Black. Do you remember him?”  
I nodded, still unable to create words or comprehend the fact that he had bought me a truck.

“His son Jacob fixes old cars and such, he gave me a good price. I wanted to get you something nice, I’m real glad you’re staying with me.”   
He stopped talking a focused on the road.  
I finally ordered my thoughts, this seemed to make him happy, and it meant no more riding around in the cruiser. I should accept it. He seems so sincere.  
I smiled at him, “Thanks dad.”

He nodded in acknowledgement and we stayed quiet for the rest of the journey.  
As we turned the corner I saw the house, it looked the same, except for the behemoth orange truck in the driveway. Charlie parked next to it as I almost flew out the car to look at it.   
It was old, huge and rusty. It was probably really loud as well. I loved it. A big grin attached itself to my face as I looked over the truck. I popped the hood to have a look at the engine, I had a few skills in random sectors thanks to the hippy bitch. She would drag me along to all of her classes so that I could carry her stuff.  
She did a car maintenance class for around 3 weeks, so I knew the basics of it. I couldn’t see anything wrong with it, but that didn’t really mean much with my small amount of car maintenance knowledge.  
I put the hood back down and looked at my dad, he had the keys in his hand, and he threw them as gently as possible to me. I grinned, as I caught them, he still remembered how clumsy I could be, not that it was hard to forget.

I unlocked the truck and got in, I turned the key and fired it up. It was as loud as I was expecting but I still loved it.   
I was going to call her LadyBug. I grinned, it’s the opposite of how this truck is, yet it was the perfect name.

I got out the car, locking the door and smiled at my dad, “It’s great, thank you so much.”

He blushed, “Anytime Bells, I’m glad you like it.”

He unlocked the door to the house and went in, hanging up his jacket.

He turned to me with a slightly pink face, “I don’t know if you remember, but I’m not a very good cook, there isn’t any food in the house. Should we order a pizza?”  
I smiled at him and nodded, “I’d have to get some groceries in when I can. I wouldn’t want to eat take out every day. And I quite enjoy cooking.  
Charlie sunk down in the old sofa and turned on the TV, some sort of sport was on.

I went to the far side of the room to get the phone and order pizza but as I picked it up there was a knock on the door. I frowned looking at Charlie, was he expecting anyone?   
He looked back at me his expression mirroring mine. I put the phone down and went to answer the door. When I opened it, I saw Shanna with a big grin on her face and a large pizza in her hands.

“Surprise!” She said walking into the house, “Hey Belzie, hey Papa Swan,” 

She went into the kitchen and put the pizza down. I followed her, grinning. “I thought you weren’t going to be here for another few days.” 

"I thought it would be more fun this way,” She winked at me and raised her voice slightly, so Charlie could hear her, “I got pepperoni, is that okay?” Charlie grunted in thanks from the front room. I got out some plates and we went about filling them up with slices. I took Charlie’s through to the living room.

Shanna followed behind me, “We’re going to head up Charlie. I’ll help Belzie unpack.” He shot her a grateful look, he was really worried about getting soppy on me, and to be honest I was worried about the same thing.   
We walked upstairs and into my old room, it hadn’t changed other than the computer in the corner. Nothing in the house seemed to be any different from when I was a child.  
The surfaces had all been newly dusted and the sheets on the bed looked new. Shanna sat down on the bed and took off her backpack, I didn't notice how big her bag was before.

"You know I didn't bring a lot with me, there's not really much to unpack."

"I know, that's why I bought this stuff with me" she said opened her bag and pulling out a bunch of clothes and other products.

I stared open mouthed at her. She looked up and me and stuck her tongue out at me. "No need to have a heart attack, they're some clothes that I don't wear that often and some things I picked up. None of them are expensive or anything."  
She gave me an embarrassed smile, "Sorry that they're not too great, but I knew that you were going to need more clothes than what you bought." She went quiet. I went over to her and hugged her, after a few seconds she hugged me back. I pulled away and she grinned at me. Let's put your stuff away and plan for school tomorrow.

I groaned and lay back on the bed thinking about school. Shanna poked me in the side, "It'll be alright; we're in this together."

I nodded and sat up. Grabbing some of the clothes she bought and putting them in the chest of drawers.

We worked silently but comfortably as we packed away all of the clothes, and I got a look at some of the things that Shanna had bought for me. Luckily, we liked similar things, for the most part, so all of the clothes that I saw, I liked. 

When we were finished, we lay back on the bed and spoke for hours, catching each other up on everything we could possibly think of. I didn't realise the time until Charlie came upstairs and knocked on the door, "Hey you two, I thought I'd let you know that it's 11.30," he turned to Shanna, "I think you should probably stay over tonight, it's dangerous to be going home at this time."

I stifled a grin, it was more dangerous for whoever else was out there than Shanna.

"If that's alright with you Papa Swan," he grinned and nodded, closing the door and heading to his bedroom.

Shanna turned to me her face getting serious, "School is going to be very interesting tomorrow; you'll need to keep your eyes peeled. I can't tell you exactly what is going to happen, but you'll know when it happens. I told you before that I had to block some of your memories from when we were kids until it was time, well tomorrow will be the right time. When whatever it is that’s going to happen happens, some memories will come back to you. But whatever you don't panic."

She finished her cryptic future telling and smiled. I simply nodded, there was no point asking questions about things like this, you either don't get told the answer or you don't like the answer.

"Sorry, that's all I can tell you, but you know how this whole thing works." I nodded again and grinned back at her.

We got ready for bed, changing clothes, brushing teeth and snuggling into the bed.   
I closed my eyes and partially dreaded having to go to school tomorrow. Shanna said it would be interesting, but something interesting for her could be a pain for me. I sighed hoping that something bad wouldn't happen tomorrow, but things are very rarely on my side. 

I grinned to myself, come on destiny fucking throw all you've got at me.


	2. Chapter 2

Jasper POV

I sighed as I looked up at the dust motes in the air and began to count my unnecessary breathes whilst trying to push away the emotions coming from my various family members. I was an empath meaning I could feel and control other people's emotions, I was also a vampire, had been for the past 154 years. I belonged to the Olympic coven. A coven of seven vampires, which is one of the largest covens. Vampires tended to travel alone or in pairs.

Though size wasn't the only way our coven differed from others, we were also what we liked to call vegetarians. Vampires for the most part drink the blood of humans, however our coven, or family as my adopted father Carlisle preferred, chose to abstain from human blood and drink from animals. Animal blood wasn't as satisfying as human blood, but it did the job.

My name is Jasper Whitlock, Major Jasper Whitlock. Though around the small, dreary town of Forks that we had found ourselves in, I was known as Jasper Hale, twin brother of Rosalie Hale.

The members of my coven- family- included Carlisle Cullen, the father and the most compassionate man or vampire I had ever come across, his mate Esme Cullen, who was a very gentle and loving vampire unless you threatened her loved ones, Emmett Cullen, my brother who was rowdy and pure, his mate Rosalie, my 'twin', who was a bitch, but secretly loving, Edward Cullen, another brother, who was very uptight and studious, and my sister Alice, who was very bouncy and pixie-like.

Alice had come to me at a very low part of my life. I had a very different upbringing than my adoptive siblings. Carlisle had changed all of them except for Alice, so they'd had a very peaceful life. I, however, was turned at 19 by a sadistic bitch who used me to fight in her vampire wars. I was one of very few vampires who managed to escape. I was her second in command and only stayed with her for as long as I did because I didn't know there was another choice.

I was very useful to her and had never lost a battle. But what did you expect from the youngest Major in the south? And that was after I lied about my age to get into the military.  
After I had escaped from the camp I travelled around in a depression with my venom brother Peter, and his mate and my venom sister Charlotte. I would drink from humans and not be able to stop the guilt. I could feel their emotions, their fear as I drained the life from them. In the wars, when I was closed and emotionless, I used to live for the moment any creature knew they couldn't do anything to stop their death and surrendered. But I started to starve myself once I was no longer able to deal with it. Which of course only made my bloodlust worse, I would lose control and massacre groups of people. This obviously didn't help with the depression.

Then one day I had been sitting in a diner in Philadelphia after I had left Peter and Charlotte. That's when the little pixie, Alice, bounded in with a big grin on her face. She bounced over to me, I thought she was crazy, not realising at first, she was a vampire. She told me that there was another life out there for me. She told me about feeding off animals and promised me a family. I wasn't really thinking so I went with her, no questions asked. I began to drink from animals and the depression slowly began to fade, though I have occasionally slipped.

Alice can see the future, which was how she knew where to find me. At first, she thought I might be her mate because I was the first person she saw in her visions, but no dice. Three members of my family had powers, Edward can read minds, Alice can see the future, and I was an empath.  
All vampires have super strength, amazing eyesight and hearing, and super-fast reflexes. Super-fast meaning we could run across the country in a matter of hours. We were also immortal, we can be killed by being torn apart and set on fire, but if that doesn't happen then we keep existing.

What do I do with my immortality you ask? I go to school, over and over and over again. I don't know why I do it, but it does keep me calm. Going through school the first time is bad enough but having to deal with the pubescent teenagers, the dull repetitive days and fighting my bloodlust over and over wasn't too great. Being with my family is marginally better but they often go over the top with the whole 'make sure Jasper doesn't fall off the bandwagon again' bit. I know they mean well, but it gets to you when you have someone hovering over you constantly.

I felt guilt from the floor below. Edward. I sighed and broadcasted my thoughts to him, _you know I don't mean it like that. It just gets a bit much when you have six mother hens hovering over you._ I felt humour come from him.

I focused my thoughts back on school to give Edward a small break. It wasn't easy for him to have to hear everyone's passing thoughts all the time. We were going through school now, I was in my last year. We were going in as Carlisle and Esme's adopted children. Me and Rose were pretending to be twins and Esme's niece and nephew.

Me and Rose often played twins, due to our vaguely similar looks. Playing the part allowed us to become quite close. I could talk to her about more personal matters than the others, he bitchiness allowed her to say exactly what she thought, even to a war-hardened vampire like me. It also gave her military-like thought process, she was a valuable ally.  
My thoughts drifted back to school, I would have to go in a few hours, and waiting on going to school was like waiting for the ax to drop on your neck. It didn't help that we couldn't sleep. I sat up in a quick motion and decided to go for a hunt in the remaining hours before school.

"Do you want to go for a hunt Emmett?" I spoke as if he was in the room, he was on the other side of the house playing video games, but he heard me just fine.  
I heard his reply, and felt his anticipation brush against me, "Sure thing bro."

I ran through the house and outside to wait for him as he kissed Rose. He ran up next to me, bouncing like Alice.

"Let's go get me some Grizzly," He grinned.

We ran through the forest picking up the scent trails of different animals. Emmett's path curved as he caught the scent of a bear. They were his favourite, and he loved to wrestle them, it drove Rose crazy. He'd come home covered in blood, mud, and clumps of fur.  
Emmett was good when you need to get your mind off something, his emotions were very pure and child-like.

I caught the scent of a mountain lion and let my senses take over. I stalked him quietly and gracefully leapt at him. He tried to fight me off, his claws scraping ineffectually against my diamond-hard skin. I quickly snapped his neck to stop him and sunk my teeth into his neck, greedily slurping the red liquid.  
When I was done I went to track Emmett, draining two deer on my way. When I found him I kept my distance. He was fighting the bear, roaring and laughing. He finally attacked, killing the bear in one swift move and draining it.

When he was done he jogged over to me with a big grin on his face, as predicted he was covered in mud, clumps of fur and leaves, his face had a big smear of blood on it and his clothes were ripped.  
I grinned a crouched as he approached. Emmett was always up for a wrestle, I always had to go easy on him because of my fighting history, but it was still fun and got out any frustrations. We spent a few hours fighting each other before we decided to head back to the house. We decided to stroll back, we didn't speak on the way back, but I could feel Emmett's contentedness, I took a breath and pulled the emotion around me and basking in it.

As we walked out the tree line we heard Esme's voice. "Use the downstairs showers you two, go through the garage."

I grinned at her polite order, there was no doubt that she would kindly remove an arm if we didn't listen.

We went around the back, whilst enjoying the hunt I hadn't noticed the sunrise, we only had about an hour before school started. I walked into the big shower, throwing out my ruined clothes as I went. I washed all the mud and traces of blood from my body. Watching it all go down the drain.

My thoughts were full of the day to come. I was getting bored with the school scene. I was thinking about going to visit Peter and Charlotte for a few weeks afterwards, when the town thinks that I'm at college.  
But I would think on that more around my 20th graduation. I grabbed a towel and ran up to my study, I quickly got ready for school.

I sat back in the chair and began to count my breaths again. 2095, 2096, 2097, bring on the monotony.


	3. Chapter 3

Bella Pov

I woke up to my alarm at 7:00, I stirred and turned over trying to ignore it and almost had a heart attack when my hand touched Shanna's face. I gasped and sat up whilst she jumped, attempted to roll away, and fell off the bed taking the duvet with her.

We looked at each other for a moment before laughing. "We are so functional, but at least we're awake." she said smiling.

I laughed, "Do you want to shower first?"

She shook her head, "You go ahead, I'll make us some food."

I nodded, and tried to remember the last time someone had made food for me.

"It was 8, maybe 9 years ago." Shanna said grinning, I frowned at her, and opened my mouth ready to berate her for reading my mind.

She held her hands up, "I didn't read your mind, before you shout at me. Your face said it all; I think I know you well enough to know your thought processes." She stuck her tongue out at me and went downstairs before I could say anything.

I was surprised she wasn't grumpy, she's usually a complete grouch in the mornings. Today was definitely going to be interesting.

I went into the bathroom, turned on the shower and waited for it to heat up. I hopped in when it got to the right temperature and let the hot water relax my muscles.

I thought about the previous conversation. I didn't think my thoughts were laid out like a book on my face. I frowned, I was actually certain it wasn't like that. Though it was probably like Shanna was saying, she just knows me well enough. She told me that she didn't read my mind and I believe her, she has no reason to lie to me.

I thought about her occasional mind reading, it was kind of weird to wrap my head around it. Not mind reading as an idea, but how with Shanna it only worked occasionally and even then only with me. She told me when we were kids that we were so in tune with each other because our souls were linked. Meaning that we were essentially soul sisters. In terms of mind reading that meant that she could sometimes pick up a passing thought and that we could have thought conversations with each other. It took some focus but we eventually mastered it.

We can have a conversation with each other with no one knowing, it's by far one of the most useful tools. I didn't like the idea of someone knowing all of my personal thoughts, though at least with Shanna I have nothing to hide.

I heard a knock on the door, "Your breakfast is downstairs, it's my turn in the shower."

"Okay, I'll be out in a second."

I heard her foot steps head away from the door and I quickly finished up in the shower.

I tossed on a plain green jumper, black skinny jeans that Shanna had bought for me, and a pair of worn out converse.

I headed downstairs to the kitchen, on the table was a plate of strawberry pop tarts. I grinned, Shanna looked up at me as I walked in.

"It's not quite gourmet but it should be fine for today. When there's a chance I'll go grocery shopping with you."

I nodded taking a bite of a pop tart. Shanna walked past me and headed upstairs for a shower.

I ate the remaining pop tarts and sat on the stool not thinking about anything in particular. 15 minutes later Shanna came back downstairs dressed in a long sleeved purple top, black skinny jeans and Doc Martins.

She had both our backpacks on one shoulder, she smiled and tossed mine to me. "You ready for our first day at school?"

I sighed and shook my head, I attempted to catch my backpack but instead managed to trip slightly as I moved forwards. The bag missed my hands and thumped to the floor.

"One day they'll invent a way to get rid of clumsiness and I'll be first in line." I grumbled.

Shanna just smirked at me, knowledge sparkling in her eyes.

I chose to ignore it, that tended to be the best thing to do.

I picked my bag up and slung it over one shoulder, "Let's go so we're not late."

Shanna nodded, "Yes, Isabella."

I frowned at her, she knew I hated being called Isabella, it was way too formal. She just grinned at me again, "That's what everybody's going to be calling you today, you might as well get used to it."

My day got a bit dimmer, I'd have to correct everybody I spoke to.

Shanna kept grinning as we made our way to my truck, it was downright creepy. Reason one for why it was creepy was that Shanna was never this cheery in the mornings, two; she hated starting school and being the new kid just as much as me, and three; school was easy and boring, we could both probably apply for early graduation and pass easily, they tended not to teach us things that we didn't already know. We only went to school so that we could spend more time away from our houses, and because we didn't know what we would do otherwise. It was also fun being able to see each other all the time. We usually had similar timetables and occasionally we were able to make classes fun.

I looked at her suspiciously, she just smiled innocently back at me, sitting down in LadyBug and waiting for me. Something weird was going on, whatever it was that was going to happen today must be really interesting, and for some reason that made the pop tarts from earlier want to re-surface.

I got into the truck, fired it up and turned to her frowning, she spoke before I could, "Yes I know something, no I can't tell you, and yes, you will find out soon."

I sighed and rubbed my head, I think I felt a migraine coming on. I sighed again and chose to let it go, I'll find out soon enough anyway. "Do you know about our schedules?" I asked.

"More or less, we're pretty much in the same class for everything." She gave me a grin, "We have gym together."

I groaned, I'd completely forgotten about gym, I was awful at it, it would be the only class I would definitely fail. Though Shanna found my clumsiness amusing. Probably because she was pretty good at it, she was pretty good at everything. She chuckled at my expression and I glared at her. She shut up and faced forward, trying to suppress her grin.

"Let's go, don't want to be late on our first day."

I rolled my eyes, and got the truck moving. I was glad that we searched the way to the school so I knew exactly where I was going, not that it would have been hard to find it. There weren't exactly a lot of places in Forks.

We entered the parking lot, luckily most of the cars here were as old, if not older than, LadyBug.

I looked around for an empty spot, driving slowly. Shanna pointed, "There's one over there."

I drove quicker towards where she pointed so that we wouldn't lose the spot, luckily it was pretty close to the main building where we would need to get our schedules.

I parked, and we got out of the truck. Naturally I managed to trip up on nothing whilst walking around the truck. I sighed and picked my backpack up, as I stood straight I noticed two shiny cars in the lot, one was a silver Volvo and the other was a red convertible. Shanna walked over to me, "Those cars don't really fit in around here."

I nodded, those two cars were the only cars in the school lot that seemed to be made after 2005. We both leaned against the back of the truck, waiting to see who the cars belonged to.

"Maybe they belong to teachers." I said curiously.

"I think there's another little parking lot for teachers, all these cars belong to students."

As she finished speaking the door to the red convertible opened and the most stunning woman stepped out. She had long blonde hair, pale skin and seemed to be wearing designer clothes. The other doors opened, including the Volvo doors. Two people got out of the Volvo, one was a small, pixie-like girl with short spiky hair, and the other was a stoic looking, bronze haired boy. Two people, other than the blonde girl, got out of the convertible, one was a huge guy with rippling muscles and the other was the most gorgeous man I'd ever seen.

He had honey blonde hair that swept into his eyes and a graceful, predator-like walk. I stood there mesmerised until Shanna cleared her throat, making me reluctantly pull my gaze from the blonde beauty.

She grinned at me, "See something you like?"

I rolled my eyes at her but didn't answer, "We should go and pick up our schedules."

I began to walk to the office, I refused to look back to see if the blonde boy was still there. Shanna caught up to me grinning, but didn't say anything. We walked in silence to the building.

We opened the doors and walked into a small room that had 'Reception' printed on the door. The paint on the walls had started to crack and was peeling from the corners. The floor was covered in a dark green lino carpet and there were old leather seats on either side of the room. Straight ahead there was a woman sitting behind a desk, engrossed in whatever was on the computer screen. We walked up to her and smiled. Shanna spoke, "Hello, we are new students starting here today."

The woman stared at her, looking clueless.

Shanna stifled a sigh and looked over at me, I stepped in before Shanna threw something at the slow woman, "Hi, I'm Bella Swan, I-"

She cut me off, her eyes lighting up slightly, "Isabella? Chief Swan's daughter?"

I stopped myself from glaring at her, "Bella, and yes, I'm Charlie's daughter."

She nodded, but didn't make a move to do anything.

Shanna's hand twitched slightly, she was losing patience with the woman, and so was I.

"We need our schedules, she's Shanna Silverstein."

The woman looked at her, "Oh yes, Chief Swan spoke highly of you as well. Please give me a moment."

She started typing on her computer, and soon she had our schedules printed off.

She smiled at us, "I hope you both enjoy your time here," she then turned to me, "I thought you might be like your mother, you seem well-behaved though." She kept the clueless smile on her face, whilst all the colour drained out of mine. My breathing began to speed up.

Shanna murmured a thanks to her and rushed me out of the room. I wasn't paying attention, I was too busy trying to remember how to breathe properly. I barely noticed when Shanna got me to sit down on a wall around the corner.

"Breathe Bella, it's okay. She's not here, she can't hurt you." She repeated it over and over, She's not here, you're safe, you're not her. I finally managed to get my breathing under control and when I opened my eyes they were looking into Shanna's bright green eyes.

She relaxed as my breathing went back to normal, and sat down next to me with her arm over my shoulder.

"I'm sor-"

Shanna cut me off before I could apologise, "You have nothing to be sorry for, that stupid woman needs to watch what she says."

"Still, I shouldn't freak out just by someone mentioning her."

Shanna rolled her eyes at me and shook her head, "The floozy shouldn't have treated you like that, you have every right to react exactly how you did. It's not something that goes away at the click of your fingers."

I took a deep breath, I was beginning to feel better. What a first day, which reminded me, "What time is it? Are we late?"

Shanna shook her head, "We still have 5 minutes." I nodded, we didn't speak, I still needed to calm down. Shanna just rubbed my back, understanding that I needed a few moments.

Finally I felt better, not 100% but enough to carry on today. Shanna looked at me in concern, "We can head back if you're not up for today."

I shook my head, "I feel alright, and how will you get your entertainment if we don't carry on? You said something would happen today."

Shanna smiled at me, "Alright then. I called ahead and they set us up with the classes we want, we're allowed out of some of them because of our scores in those advancing exams," I nodded, "The classes we don't have together are, AP Biology, AP Latin, US history, Computer science, Auto-Mechanics, and AP English Literature. Biology and Latin are at the same time and so are Computer Science and US history, and Auto-Mechanics and English. I managed to work it out perfectly." She looked really proud of herself.

I frowned, "I know I'm Biology and English, and you're Latin and Mechanics, but I don't know why either of us would do US history, we did all the research and courses for it."

When Shanna lived in Phoenix with her psycho adopted dad Liam, we got to spend time together. My Mum, Phil and Liam got on well, unsurprisingly, and when they didn't want us in the way, they sent us to some center where they did lots of different courses. We didn't have anything better to do, so we learnt. We took every available class whenever we were able to.

She smiled, "That would be you, I did higher level courses for it while I was in Washington with the Brady brunch."

I made a face at her, "You can't leave me alone, I'll be so bored."

She waved her hand at me, "Don't worry, it's a senior class. It'll be easy but not too easy, we can't have your history knowledge getting rusty."

I stuck my tongue out at her, hopefully the class was interesting.

I frowned as I realised something, "Wait, didn't you already get a certificate for your Latin? How come you're doing that again?"

She just smiled at me and tapped her nose, "All will be made clear in time."

"You're really annoying."

"And yet you love me, come on, we'll be late if we don't hurry. We've got Algebra, the room shouldn't be too far from here." She grabbed my arm and pulled me towards our first class.

Jasper Pov

I sat in my English class bored beyond believe, I was sitting next to Rosalie who seemed just as bored as I was. She was checking out her nails whilst half the boys in the class ogled her, trying to look discreet.

I grinned as I thought of a fun game to pass the time. Rosalie looked at me from the corner of her eye, I spoke quietly at vampire speed so that none of the humans would be able to hear us, or even know that we were talking.

"Wanna make a bet?" I asked her.

She raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow.

"Let's see who can make one of the humans embarrass themselves first."

She smiled and nodded slightly, "Easy, what are the stakes?"

I shrugged, "$10,000?".

"Keeping the stakes low are we?"

I grinned, "It doesn't take much to embarrass humans, why would I put a big price on it?"

She gave a small smile back, and nodded slightly.

I immediately turned around a spied my target, it was a girl called Hannah. I smiled to myself. Hannah was sitting on the row next to mine and Rosalie's, but as I went make my first move, Rosalie made hers. She winked at a boy named Mike, causing him to choke on his water and spill it down himself. Everyone looked over to him and laughed.

He went bright red, and turned away from me and Rosalie who were skillfully managing not to laugh at the poor boy. Though it was just a wink, you wouldn't think it would have that much of an impact. I felt the embarrassment surround him and the humour surround everyone else.

Rosalie clearly chose the weakest link in the classroom. Though I'm surprised she didn't go for the teacher. It was always fun to make them embarrass themselves.

It may seem cruel but it was all we had, at least we didn't string any of the humans along. As vampires we were seen as insanely beautiful to humans, they would embarrass themselves with or without our help in order to gain our attention.

There were about 15 minutes left of class before the humans lunchtime. None us ate human food, so it was a waste of time, but we didn't really have a choice. We slipped back into boredom as the teacher quieted the class and carried on talking about a book I had read at least 20 times before.

After about what felt like 100 years, the bell chimed and were excused to lunch. Me and Rosalie stood, packing away our props and walked to the door. Emmett was waiting outside for Rosalie, he grinned at me and put his arm around her as we walked towards the cafeteria to meet the rest of our family.

Bella POV

Me and Shanna were walking towards the cafeteria arm in arm after our morning lessons. They went well, though I was getting steadily annoyed about having to continuously correct everyone who called me Isabella.

Shanna on the other hand was getting more excited. I just rolled my eyes and carried on ignoring her. We had met a few people in our classes, though we noticed that most of the guys were eyeing us up with lust and the girls with jealousy. I was surprised by both, who would be interested in me? I was very ordinary looking, I had brown hair that went to my waist, brown eyes and pale skin, despite living in such a sunny place for most of my life. Shanna on the other hand was very pretty. She also had brown hair the same length as mine but had bright green eyes. We were the same height at around 5 8". I could understand when the looks were aimed at her but not me. Even with our shared status of 'shiny new toy'.Shanna rolled her eyes at me, easily guessing my thought process.

Though there was one girl who we met and both liked. Her name was Angela, she was very gentle and very caring. She also had a very obvious, to me and Shanna anyway, crush on a boy called Ben. He was nice to, a good match for her.

Whilst everyone was talking to us just before class started, I say talking to us but they were actually talking around us and about us, she had asked how we liked it here, how she was glad that we had each other here, and that we could talk to her if anything got difficult. She blushed bright red as she said it. Shanna smiled gently at her and genuinely thanked her for her kindness.

Shanna 'spoke' to me mentally. **She's nice. We should ask her to go to the cinema with us. Encourage her to tell that Ben boy how she feels.**

I was surprised at that, Shanna generally didn't make an effort to talk to people. She didn't generally like people, it was a thing we had in common. But I couldn't help but agree with her. I wanted to get to know this girl and make a friend.

I nodded to her.

We reached the cafeteria, and we saw Angela wave us over to her table. I smiled at her and we headed over. We sat down next to her but before she could say hi, we were bombarded with questions. How did we know each other, what Phoenix was like, whether we had boyfriends, the list of annoying questions went on. I answered most of the questions with simple yes or no answers. And that's when the people we saw earlier walked in. They were the most beautiful group of people I had ever seen. Most of the cafeteria turned to stare at them for a few seconds before turning back to their tables, but me and Shanna carried on looking curiously. They all had the same pale skin, even more pale than mine. I looked almost immediately at the beautiful blonde boy from earlier. His eyes met mine for a split second before he walked to an empty table with his family.

It took a moment for me to realise that he had the strangest eye colour, an amber almost gold colour. Was he wearing contacts? I looked to the others, they had the same eye colour as him. I frowned slightly, they all seemed somewhat familiar.

I turned to find that Shanna was looked at me with smile, as per usual I ignored her expectant gaze and turned to Angela.

"Who are they?" I asked, trying not to let too much interest leak into my voice.

She didn't need to look or ask who I was talking about, "They're the Cullens and Hales." She answered.

"They moved here a few years ago, their father is Dr. Carlisle Cullen, and their mother is Esme Cullen. The girl and boy with the blonde hair are Rosalie and Jasper Hale, they're Esme's niece and nephew. The Cullen's adopted them when Esme's sister died. The others are Emmett, the big guy, Edward and Alice Cullen. They were adopted to."

I nodded, a girl called Jessica, who was sitting on Shanna's side, decided to butt in, "Emmett Cullen is together with that girl Rosalie, like together together, and they live together as well, it's really weird."

Angela seemed to disagree, "They're not related though so it's not that weird." She turned back to me and Shanna, "I think it's really nice that they've adopted that many kids, Dr and Mrs Cullen are both really young as well."

Jessica put up her nose, "Well, I think it's because Mrs Cullen can't have kids." As if that made their actions any less kind. I just ignored her and she went back to whatever conversation she was having with another girl called Lauren.

I looked back over to the Cullens. They didn't seem to be talking, or eating, they just picked at the food on their trays. I frowned, why would they buy it if they didn't want it?

I frowned slightly as I turned back to the table, something was bothering me, but I couldn't put my finger on what. A small flash of memory hit me as I looked at Shanna in confusion, it was me and Shanna running around as children in Forks. We were in a little meadow, looking at a beautiful woman as she lay down by a tree, she had bright red eyes, vampire. I widened my eyes and Shanna nodded. I fixed a mask of calm on my face and ate my food in small amounts, as if on autopilot, as Shanna pretended to study her timetable.

**What do you remember?** she asked

**-A woman with red eyes, she was a vampire but looked injured. We were in that meadow we used to play in.**

**Yup, that sounds about right. Do you remember anything else?**

I tried to stay calm. Which wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I mean, I'm having a telepathic conversation with someone. Vampires existing wasn't actually that odd when you think about it.

**-No, so... vampires exist? You couldn't tell me before?**

**Yes, they exist. No, but you already knew, when your memory resurfaces you'll know all you need to for the moment.**

**-Okay, so what does that have to do with the situation.**

I heard her sigh.

**Why don't you have a look around. Does anyone remind you of that woman?**

**-Remind me of her?**

Immediately thought of the Cullens, they had the same beauty and skin as that woman.

**-The Cullens? They're vampires? But their eyes aren't red. That woman's eyes were red.**

**Yes, they're vampires, they eat differently to the woman. You need to try and remember as much as you can about that memory. Most of your questions will be answered then.**

I took a deep breath. I tried not to think about the fact that vampires exist and that there was a group of them in the school cafeteria. I pulled out one of my small biology text books from my bag and pretended to study for my next class whilst trying to recall the memory. I focused on the freeze frame I had in my head and let it flow.

_Me and Shanna were running through the meadow to go to our special hideout, we had to be around 10 years old. The sky was grey but don't let that fool you, it was summer in Forks. We were running past a section of dandelions when we saw someone lying by a big tree. We looked at each other and cautiously walked towards them. It was a woman, a beautiful woman with a dirtied dress on and long blonde hair. We got about 2 foot away from her when she began to move. And looked up at us with her red eyes. She looked weak and had cuts on her face but there wasn't any blood on her. She tried to move but was unsuccessful. I spoke first._

_"Are you okay miss? Do you want us to call someone?" I asked, the lessons my dad taught me paying off, though I knew she wasn't normal so I didn't think that she wanted me to call the hospital. There wasn't any blood anyway. She winced and made a failed effort to cover her ears as we spoke._

_**I don't think she's human.** Shanna told me through our mind link. **What should we do? She looks injured.** _

_**I shrugged at her whilst the pretty lady looked between us confused.** _

_**-Maybe she's hungry? What is she if she isn't human?** _

_Shanna nodded, **I think she's a vampire, my pa told me about them, red means human.** _

_**-Vampire? Human as in human blood? I don't think we could give her human blood, what do we do?** _

_**We could try an animal, we can hunt one and give it?** _

_**-But what if she isn't a vampire? It hurts when she talks how can we ask her?** _

_Shanna smiled and pulled me to her, miming being a vampire I giggled as I pretended to be a victim and fell to the floor. We then looked at the woman expectantly. Her eyes were wide with shock and she nodded, she looked like she was wondering about our sanity._

_Shanna smiled at me, **See she's a vampire, I'll go get my bow from the den then hunt something and bring it back. Maybe it will help?** _

_**Okay, don't take too long.** _

_She nodded at me and went into the forest. I sat down in front of Miss Pretty Red and started pulling up daisies, I began to slowly making a daisy chain. After about 20 minutes, Shanna came back dragging a deer. I stood up and went to help her. There wasn't as much blood as I thought there would be, but it still made me feel a little sick. We dragged the deer up to Miss Pretty Red and walked back to our spot and sat down. Shanna helped me to make the daisy chain. We ignored the sounds of Miss Pretty red drinking the deer blood and turned daisies into crowns. We placed one on each others head and laughed._

_**-When do you think Miss Pretty Red will be done? Do you think she'll want another?** _

_Shanna shrugged, **I think she might be done. Do you think she'll like the daisy chain?** _

_I nodded, **It's pretty.** _

_**Shanna smiled as we finished the chain. She gently picked it up and we walked over to Miss Pretty Red who was watching us curiously with a drained deer next to her.** _

_Shanna shyly presented the daisy crown to her and Miss Pretty Red gave her a smile and bowed her head slightly. Shanna beamed and placed it on her head. I stood up next to Shanna._

_"Do you like it?" I forgot that she didn't like the sounds, but this time she didn't cringe. She nodded, she noticed my reaction when I spoke, she pointed to her ears and nodded but pointed to her throat and shook her head._

_**-Her ears are fine but her throat isn't? Are her ears okay because of the deer?** _

_Shanna shrugged, **I think so, it makes sense, though why wouldn't her throat be okay?** _

_**-I don't know, maybe you can heal her. Like that bird with the broken wing.** _

_**I'll try but I'm not that good at it.** _

_Shanna walked towards Miss Pretty Red, knelt by her and placed her hand on her neck. Miss Pretty Red went still and watched her. Shanna closed her eyes and focused on healing. Shanna's hand began to glow white, and her breathing quickened and she clenched her teeth to stop herself from crying out. I was getting worried, I took a step toward her as she began to slouch forward. I put my hands on her shoulders and felt the energy rush from me. I fell to my knees, clenching my teeth as she was. But after a few more moments, the energy being taken from me slowed until I was able to unclench my jaw._

_Shanna took her hand off Miss Pretty Red's neck and took deep breaths. Miss Pretty Red was suddenly sitting up, my eyes hadn't caught the movement._

_"Thank you." Her voice sounded like tinkling bells. "How did you do that? I have never seen such a thing."_

_Shanna looked up with drooping eyes and smiled, "I'm glad it worked."_

_Shanna turned around and sat against the tree, I plopped myself down next to her as she caught her breath. Miss Pretty Red stood up and disappeared. My mouth fell open as I looked around._

_**-How did she do that?** _

_Shanna shrugged, "My pa said they're really fast."_

_I got worried again, Shanna had gone really pale, she looked really drained._

_"You need food and water"_

_And as soon as I said that Miss Pretty Red flashed back with two bottles of water and two sandwiches. She knelt down next to us and gently placed them next to us._

_"Thank you."_

_She nodded and smiled._

_I picked them up, opened one of the sandwiches and handed it to Shanna, she picked it up and began to eat. Slowly at first but then seemed to inhale it. I handed her the bottle of water, which she guzzled within a second. She sat up looking much better. I picked up the other sandwich and began to eat it._

_"Thank you." She said talking to Miss Pretty Red._

_Miss Pretty Red smiled at her and shook her head. "No, thank you, both of you. I am forever indebted to you both."_

_We looked at her with wide eyes, **Why is she indebted to us?** We both asked each other at the same time. _

_Miss Pretty Red saw our confusion, "You saved me and potentially anyone who could have stumbled upon me. I would have slowly lost energy until I accidentally drained someone, you two found me before that point and got me blood. You also healed my voice. Eternity is a long time to live without a voice. But how do you two know what I am?"_

_We smiled and explained to her some of what Shanna could do and parts of our lives. She in turn explained all that she could think to tell us about vampires and her human and vampire life._

The memory faded, though I knew there was more to it. It felt as though I had been lost in my memory for hours when in actuality it had been about a minute and a half. 

I took a deep breath and looked at my tray, it was empty now. Shanna had switched sides with me and was now in a conversation with Angela. I think they were talking about movies, Shanna was probably inviting her to go to the cinema with us. I allowed myself to think about that so I wouldn't be overwhelmed by the memory. I felt calm soak into me and I breathed a sigh of relief. I turned to Shanna and Angela with a smile. 

They looked at me and smiled, "I invited Angela to watch a film with us on one of the weekends, I was telling her that we have problems with choosing films. Or more I have no problem choosing films but you don't let us watch them." Shanna said with a smile. I noticed that Shanna kept her voice low so that the others wouldn't hear and invite themselves. Angela seemed to understand this and went along with it. 

I grinned, "I think what you mean is, you choose the scariest film possible and then we both get too scared so you have to stay at mine and we stay up all night because we can't sleep and we both suffer for it the next day." 

Angela laughed, I looked over at her with a smile, "After the first three times I had to put my foot down." 

We laughed and enjoyed the rest of lunch talking about what films we'd seen and books we'd read. It was enjoyable and easy, when the bell went we waved to Angela and headed to our next classes, I had Biology and Shanna had Latin. Hopefully classes weren't too boring without Shanna. I took a breath before entering the room, ready to correct everyone who was going to call me Isabella. 

As I walked in I saw one of the Cullens, the boy with reddish hair, Edward I think. I reminded myself of the things that Miss Pretty Red had told us about vampires when we were young. Golden eyes meant they fed on animals. I took another deep breath and walked up to the teacher, Banner I think his name was. He was an older man with glasses, white hair and a short beard. I wanted to ask him where I could sit but as I looked around the classroom, there was only one available seat and that was next to Edward Cullen. 

Naturally I would be sitting next to him. He pointed to the desk after welcoming me, thankfully he didn't make me do a little speech. "You can sit next to Edward Cullen, Isabella." 

I bit my tongue and smiled, "It's Bella." 

I walked to the table and sat down, his eyes went black and wide as I looked at him, I smiled, he nodded his head curtly and looked away. He's thirsty and barely in control. I need to stay as calm as possible. 

It only built up the awkward atmosphere. 

Okay then, no need to address the vampire in the room. 


	4. Chapter 4

Bella POV

I sat there trying not to make any sudden movements, or somehow piss off the now black eyed vampire anymore than I seemed to have. If anything I was starting to get a little offended. It's pretty rude to make the killing gaze at someone you've never met before.

I wondered why he was having this reaction. He fed on animals right? And surely he wouldn't be in school if he wasn't able to control himself. So what? One whiff and he's heading for the bomb shelter? What the hell?

I drowned out Mr Banner's dull voice and attempted to make mental contact with the pain in my ass Shanna. It was a little difficult because she wasn't right next me, but I was hoping that it would still work. We didn't really know what the limit of it was but it was worth a shot so I could lecture her.

Luckily it worked. **_-Hey! Want to explain to me why I'm sitting next to a volatile vampire?_**

**_Hey._ ** She sounded somewhat apologetic. **_Ummm, this was the only way. You'll be fine though. Probably..._**

I stayed silent.

**_Okay, I'll admit it. It was a little touch and go for half a second, I almost barrelled through the door, but it's all back on track and it will all be fine._ **

I sighed and let it go, I would give her hell for it later. There was one thing I was still wondering about though.

**_-Why is he so affected by me? His eyes went pitch black the moment I sat down. I'm trying real hard not to freak right now, but you put me with a vampire who looks like he wants to eat me like one of those tube yogurts._ **

**_Umm... Well there's a slight chance that your blood is the sweetest he's ever smelt._ **

I froze for a second, Miss Pretty Red's words coming back to me.

**_-Are you telling me that you let me into a room with this vamp, knowing that I was his goddamned La tua canteen-cantante or whatever the fuck it's called? Are you shitting me?_ **

**_I knew, for the most part, that it would be okay, and you really need to trust me more, we'll talk after, when the day is over. I'll explain everything I can. Believe me, this was the better option. I know you'll get it, and I trusted you to be able to handle as much of the situation as you could. By the way, he's going to talk to you soon, don't try and hit him; that would be really bad._ **

I sighed to myself as I withdrew from the conversation, she was probably right. She usually is, but I reserved the right be mad. At least until she explained everything.

I focused on the teacher again, he was still talking about a topic I already knew about. I started to make a little doodle on my book when the teacher called my name, actually saying it right, "Bella?"

I looked up at him, he asked me a question expecting to catch me not paying attention. I rolled my eyes at his futile attempt to embarrass me, but as I opened my mouth to answer him I heard Edward Cullen whisper the answer to me, "The Krebs Cycle."

I clenched my teeth together and repeated the answer, "The Krebs Cycle," Mr Banner nodded grumbling to himself as he continued talking.

I focused on the board, my eyes narrowing slightly. Did Edward think I was an idiot? I already knew the answer, I didn't need him to give it to me, I was clearly about to give the answer myself. I was getting irrationally angry about it, did he really not notice that I knew the answer? I wanted to hit him right now. Oh. That explained Shanna's warning earlier. I sighed, trying not to send anymore of my scent towards Edward. I carried on doodling trying to distract myself.

The rest of the class went without incident and as soon as Mr Banner dismissed everyone with the bell, Edward practically ran out of the room, a little too quickly for a human, but no one seemed to notice. I put my books in my bag and left the room, Shanna was waiting outside the room with an apologetic look on her face. I narrowed my eyes at her as I walked to our next class, she caught up to me.

**_I'm sorry, but you'll be thanking me later. I'll tell you everything when we get back to yours._ **

I gave a curt nod, I already forgave her but that didn't mean that I would let her off the hook so easily. I had just found out today, well sort of today, that vampires exist and she let me go into a room with a vampire that wanted my blood more than anything else.

I saw her pout at me from the corner of my eye and I couldn't help but crack a small smile. She beamed at me and linked her arm through mine as we went into the classroom.

The teacher addressed us, "Ah, you must be Shanna and Isabella."

I sighed, back to normal. I covered up my annoyed expression with a polite smile, "It's Bella."

Edward POV 

I practically ran from the classroom, not caring if someone saw how fast I ran. My singer. That girl was my singer, and I couldn't hear her thoughts either. It was something that I had only realised once I'd left the classroom. I had never wanted someone's blood so much in my existence. I heard the thoughts of my brother and sister as I headed towards the forest, I needed to hunt now.

I understand Edward, I can explain to everyone why you're leaving. But please don't be gone too long, we'll miss you. That thought came from Alice, my sister and best friend.

Hmm, I wonder who made Eddie-boy piss his pants. That was Emmett, he would be forever immature, I would miss his pure thoughts, he never thought anything that he wouldn't say out loud.

Rose and Jasper's thoughts weren't about me, they didn't seem to know yet that I was leaving, Alice would explain it to them.

As I got out of eye-line I ran at top speed to Carlisle to tell him I was leaving. I wasn't sure where I was going to go, I'd figure that out on the way. I could go to the Denali's. Either way I needed to get away from Forks and those silent, torturous, brown eyes.

Bella POV 

The rest of school passed fairly quickly and without any more drama. Me and Shanna had separate classes for last period, so I was meeting her at the truck. I was on my way, trying to organise my books and put them into my bag, when I walked into the wall. I felt my face go red, but as I looked up in embarrassment I realised that I hadn't walked into a wall but into Jasper Hale. My blush escalated, it felt like my face was on fire.

"I'm so sorry, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going." I tried to explain.

He was grinning down at me, hands on my arms to stop me from falling. I could feel the coldness of his skin through my jumper but for some reason he only made me feel warm.

"No worries darlin'." I melted at his voice. I straightened up and he dropped his arms. It was awkward for a few seconds whilst I stared into his eyes. I came back into reality, nodding at him and walked to the truck.

I could feel that I was still bright red, and I felt his eyes burning into my back. I refused to turn around and embarrass myself further. When I finally made it to the truck, Shanna was lying back on the hood with her eyes closed, like she was trying to get a tan from the grey skies. I leaned against the door and closed my eyes, my face pointing towards the sky.

"That was super smooth Bells."

I moved to sit on the hood next to her, mimicking her position. "How much did you see?"

"All of it, I just wanted to see what was holding you up. I then saw it was the blonde beauty. I couldn't help but watch the rest."

I sighed, "Why am I a fool?"

Shanna laughed, "You're not a fool, you're just 18."

I turned my head to look at her, and she did the same, "You want to tell me what this whole thing is about?"

"Sure, but we should probably go and pick up some groceries then head to your house."

I narrowed my eyes at her. She held her hands up in surrender, "I'm not trying to stall, we need to pick up groceries."

I nodded at her, "Okay then, let's go."

We both hopped down from the truck and got inside. I turned the keys in the ignition and the truck came roaring to life. I drove towards the exit of the parking lot, passing by the Cullens, I got to have one final look at Jasper Hale before we left for the grocery store. I had no idea why I felt drawn to him when I didn't even know him, but it was just another thing I would decide not to think about. Though Shanna's side glances and knowing smiles were making that very difficult for me. I shot her a glare and continued to drive.

We had finished grocery shopping, got to the house, packed everything away and started on dinner. I decided lasagna would be good for tonight. When we had finished the preparation and put the lasagna in the oven, I turned to Shanna.

"So what's going on?"

She looked at me, "I don't want to ruin it by telling you too much, so first you'll have to tell me what you feel about the Cullens."

I raised an eyebrow at her, "Well, I've only met Edward and he was fighting everything in him to not kill me."

"What about the others?" She probed.

I rolled my eyes, "Well, I haven't met the others so I don't really have much to say about them."

It was Shanna's turn to raise an eyebrow at me.

I sighed, "Okay, Jasper Hale is... very pretty."

Shanna stayed quiet, waiting for me to say more.

I sighed, "He makes me feel warm, I don't know why but I feel drawn to him. I want to get to know him."

Shanna smiled and nodded approvingly, "Well you know that they're vampires, and you remember what Pretty Red told us about their kind. So what do you want to know?"

I thought for a moment, "Why did you put me in a room with Edward?"

Shanna sighed, "It wasn't ideal but Edward needed to meet you properly in a setting like that. It wasn't a full proof plan, but he needed to leave and think so that you could get to know a certain cowboy better." She waggled the her eyebrows at me, but this just left me with more questions, and guilt. I didn't want to be the reason why Jasper lost a family member. I didn't want him to be sad, I shook myself out of it. Why was I being like this? I didn't even know Jasper.

"I get why that would make Edward run away, but why did he have to leave? Wouldn't I be able to get to know Jasper with him here? I don't want Jasper to lose a family member just because of this weird pulling thing I feel."

Shanna's eyes and smile got wider, "I didn't know whether you'd be able to feel it already, you really like Jasper Hale don't you?"

I sighed, there was no point even attempting to hide something from Shanna, she knew me to well. "Yes, okay. I really like him, but I don't understand why. There's been a weird pulling in my chest from when I first saw him and it only got worse when I bumped into him and got a whiff of his amazing scent."

Shanna chuckled and mumbled, "She is truly made for this."

I frowned at her, "Don't laugh at me, what am I truly made for?"

She shook her head refusing to answer me, "You have all the information you need about vampires in your head, I won't ruin this for you. It will be so much better if you figure that one out for yourself. But the rest I can answer, because you may still need to be on your guard."

She took her breath and answered my previous questions, "I put you in the room with him because if he had met you in another setting, then he would have either drained you or decided that you two were meant to be mates. And you being you would have gone along with it even though you would have been miserable."

I frowned, "Why would he think we were mates? And why would I have gone along with it?"

She gave me a look, "You've met you before right? You don't think you deserve anything, so you'll go for the first option believing that you would receive the love you want. Anyone would have done the same. And I'm not sure why he would think you're mates, maybe he confused the pull to your blood for a mates bond? You know I don't know everything, but that's my best guess."

I thought about that for a second, if anyone else had said that to me then I probably would have gotten defensive but there really is no point with Shanna, I knew she wasn't trying to be cruel.

"Why did he have to leave for me to talk to Jasper? Why do I need to talk to Jasper?"

She smiled at me, "You don't want to talk to Jasper?"

I rolled my eyes at her, "Of course I do, but you're making it seem like I have to."

"Of course you don't have to, but it would be really good for you guys to get to know each other. You've already admitted you like him so there should be no problem there."

"But why did Edward have to leave for that?" I asked, bringing us back to the main topic.

"Because he would have stifled you, he would have deemed Jasper too dangerous and wouldn't let you be around him. You would have given up on the idea. It wasn't good."

"He wouldn't let me? Why would I listen?"

Shanna put her hand on my shoulder, "There's no point going this deep into it, it's not going to happen like that anymore."

I took a deep breath, "You're right, but I don't understand why it would all go down like that. That's not what I'm like."

She looked at me sadly, "It's not going to happen, trust me."

I nodded, I needed to let it go. It's like what I said before, if you ask a question you either don't get an answer or don't like the answer.

I shut what could have been out of my head. I knew that it would never happen now. I could be strong here. I could be strong.

Shanna gave me a small smile, "You are strong."

I smiled back, wanting desperately to believe her. I took a deep breath.

"So what happens now?"

She smiled with a gleam in her eye, "You get to know lover boy, you be yourself, and we possibly screw with the vamps? Have some fun of our own?"

I laughed, "How do we do that?"

The mischievous glint in Shanna's eyes only got brighter, "With innocence? Making small comments about their vampirism and brushing it off? I feel like we could really have some fun with it, and don't forget Halloween isn't too far away."

I laughed again, she was a cruel woman but I couldn't help but approve of the plan and get excited, "Will we be able to tell them that we know their secret?"

Shanna shrugged, "I don't know, I only know bits and pieces. I'm really hoping that we don't have to come clean until after Halloween though. I'm already trying to come up with plans."

I grinned in anticipation, Shanna looked back at me, "What did Edward say to you by the way? I didn't know what it was going to be, I just knew it was going to happen."

I sighed, "He gave me an answer to a question I already knew, I was about to answer and everything."

"I knew you had your own shield. I just knew it."

I looked at her and blinked, "What are you talking about? What shield?"

She smiled at me, "Looks like you've got a little supernatural in you to. A shield around your mind, and maybe a physical one but I'm not sure."

My mouth fell open in shock, how could I be supernatural?

Shanna just smiled at me waiting for me to calm down while she explained, "I've had the suspicion that you had a shield, something that would block certain powers from affecting you but I had no way to prove it. Our soul bond changes things, so I couldn't test it. But I could tell there was something."

I just looked at her, "What are you talking about? How does Edward giving me an answer prove that I have a shield?"

She smiled, "Do you remember Miss Pretty Red explaining the 'extras' of being a vampire?"

I nodded, "Super speed and reflexes, amazing hearing and sight, super hard skin and some..."

I frowned, "Some of them have other abilities, do the Cullens have freaky deaky powers?"

Shanna grinned and nodded, "Alice is a seer, though it's based on decisions, Jasper is an empath and Edward is a mind reader."

Her finger twitched slightly when she mentioned Alice, I frowned.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

She looked at me, and gave me a small smile, "I'm not too sure, Alice seems really familiar to me. I think I may have met her before. A long, long time ago."

Her eyes had a far away look in them, her face scrunched up slightly in confusion. By a long, long time ago I knew she meant another life. Shanna was very weird, she remembers that she'd had lot of her past lives, though she never explained how it worked.

"A past life? How does that work? Like reincarnation?" I asked.

Shanna shook her head, "Not exactly, I don't really understand it. I've never looked myself up to see if I'm in history anywhere. I remember some sections of different times but it's blurry, like they're old childhood memories or something. Sometimes they become clear but only if I need them. I really don't understand how any of it works so I can't really tell you. I think I'm the same me each time, but I really don't know. I tend not to think about it, there's no point. I could think about it all day and still not understand it. And I've never seen a person from another 'life' before, but vampires kind of change the dynamic. I think I've met Alice before. I can't see anything specific, just dim and blurry images. It gives me a headache."

It wasn't really a concept I could grasp and obviously Shanna could't either. It was too confusing a thought to think of at the moment but I knew that when she figured it out, she would let me know.

I blinked, "So this shield..?"

Shanna grinned, "Edward can't read your thoughts, but I'm not sure if it would affect Alice and Jasper."

I breathed a sigh of relief, "Our cover isn't blown then, what about you, would he be able to read your mind?"

Shanna shook her head with a slight smile, "I have a similar sort of shield as you, and I'm pretty sure because of the bond some of our 'freaky deaky' powers mingle. But honestly, I have no idea how it works."

She sighed in frustration, she described it once as tying her own hands behind her back. She had powers but didn't know how to use them all and was only given glimpses of things when she truly needed them, or if it wasn't too important. I frowned in frustration on her behalf and focused on things she was more likely to know about.

"Would Alice and Jasper be able to use their powers on you?" I wasn't sure if Jasper would be able to feel my emotions but I'm pretty sure that if he could it would be really embarrassing.

Shanna grinned, "Only if I let them. And no, you will go out there and deal with it if he can feel your emotions."

I whined, clinging onto her arm, "But I don't want to."

Shanna grinned, "Just subdue your emotions you nut. It's a little suspicious if you walk in with no emotions, he'll think you're a sociopath or something."

I pouted at her, "Please?"

She stood her ground, "No, let's get the lasagna out of the oven before it burns. What did you think of Biology and English?"

**_Charlie's back._**

I nodded, "They were alright, pretty easy but still okay." I heard the door open and close as Charlie came in. He gave us a small smile and I heard his stomach growl as I pulled the lasagna out of the oven.

Me and Shanna laughed as his face turned pink, "How was school? You staying over Silvers?"

"It was good," I responded, Shanna shook her head, at the second question, "I've got to head home."

Charlie nodded, tucking into the big slice of lasagna I had put in front of him. He stopped to take a breath after 4 shoveled forkfuls, "You staying for dinner?"

Shanna grinned, "I can, but I need to get home soon." Charlie nodded again and went back to inhaling his food.

I passed Shanna a plate with a portion of lasagna and salad, and then grabbed my own. We all moved into the living room, Charlie turned on the TV and we all sat in a peaceful silence and finished our dinner.

Shanna washed up for me despite my objections, then she grabbed her stuff, hugged me, said good bye to Charlie, and headed out the door. I grabbed her arm just before she could walk off, **_Are you staying here with Liam?_ ** I needed to know.

She smiled at me, **_Not at the moment._** "I'll see you tomorrow Bells."

I let go of her arm and frowned after her retreating form. I felt the chill of the evening breeze brush against me, I hugged myself trying to fight it off as I walked back into the house. Charlie was still sitting and watching TV, I smiled, "I'm going up Dad, good night."

He looked up and smiled, "Night Bells."

I walked upstairs and into my bedroom and collapsed onto my bed. I thought about Jasper, his perfect voice, his perfect face and his deep, golden eyes.

I drifted off into sleep quickly, my mind enticed by the idea of seeing Jasper Hale in my dreams.

Jasper POV 

I chased after the deer, letting it have a few seconds head start, not that it mattered. I quickly grabbed it, snapped it's neck and took nourishment. I dropped the lifeless carcass and began to dig a hole to bury it.

When doing a mundane activity like this, it becomes almost impossible for my mind not to wonder. I started thinking about today. Edward had run off, left the family for some time. He had found his singer and ran from her. Isabella Swan, or Bella Swan as she seemed to have been correcting everyone. My thoughts lingered on her. Her long, mahogany hair, her beautiful brown eyes. I shook my head, trying to dispel the image of the young woman, the mortal. But no matter how much I tried, her face continued to plague me.

I knew why, though I wouldn't want to admit it, least of all to myself. But still, I knew. I knew from the first moment I looked into her eyes and smelt her scent that she was mine, my mate, my other half. That mouth watering scent that made me drool but had nothing to do with my thirst. The mere thought of draining her could bring me to my knees.

I shook my head again and tried to distract myself. Math, geology, Bella, the height of Everest, the amount of bricks in an average house, Bella, how many leaves in the forest, Bella, Bella, Bella. Nothing worked, a small, delicate human had managed to become the center of my world. I hated and loved her for it. I could feel the pull in my chest telling me to go to her. I could tell it wasn't as strong as the other couples around me, but that was simply because she was still human. It was rare to feel the pull with a human at all.

But she was human, and that was the source of my pain. I couldn't take her life away from her, I couldn't subject her to being with a monster like me. It was likely that she didn't even feel the pull, she could go on and have a full life. I sighed, the pain of not being with her burning at my heart.

I heard a rustle not far off and footsteps come slowly towards me. Alice, I looked up and grinned, "Come to hunt Alice?"

She bounced through the bushes and sat cross legged in front of me, just looking at me. I felt her anticipation and excitement brush against me. I finished burying the deer, looked back at her and raised an eyebrow, "What's up Alice?"

She just grinned at me, bouncing slightly, almost bursting at the seams with excitement, I sent a wave of calm to her and she visibly calmed down.

"You like that Swan girl don't you?" She grinned at me, her all knowing eyes glinting in the moonlight.  
I didn't answer, but I didn't need to. Alice continued, "You can get to know her more this week. And you might want to do that before Edward comes back. He keeps changing his mind but I think he's going to be coming back in 2 weeks."

I looked back at Alice, "She's human Alice, I could hurt her. You know I'm not as strong as you guys with this diet."

Alice gave a very unladylike snort, "We both know that you're incapable of hurting her. And I haven't seen anything that would suggest you even remotely hurting her."

I brightened up at that, maybe I could get to know her. It couldn't hurt, and we could at least be friends. I'd love to at least be able to get to know her.

Alice's eyes glazed over as she was plunged into a vision. When her eyes refocused she was grinning and clapping her hands.

I rolled my eyes at her, "Let's head back to the house."

She nodded and jumped up, "Race you." And she took off running towards the house, I smiled at took off after her.

I caught up with her and we reached the house at the same time. Esme was sitting on the sofa, cuddled up to Carlisle, I felt a twinge of envy whilst looking at them. Their feelings were full of contentment and love. They looked up at us, smiles on their faces. I smiled back, nodding in greeting, and ran up to my room. I lay down gently on my bed. It was something I didn't need, since I didn't have to sleep, but it was nice to lie down and read every once in a while. I grabbed a book and lay back relaxing, my mind drifting back to the events of today. I had first noticed Bella at lunch time. I was walking into the cafeteria, all of the human's emotions were full of excitement, but it was no struggle for me to push back the feelings and not let them effect me.

They were like that because of two new editions to the school. Humans were very easily distracted, the smallest of things made them happy or sad. I looked up and saw the two new students. They were both looking towards us with curiosity, the one with green eyes had very subdued emotions, I couldn't quite grasp what she was feeling, but I stopped caring as I made eye contact with the other girl. Her deep brown eyes bore into me, I had to look away, though the moment I looked away I was consumed by the need to look at her again. I immediately blocked my thoughts from Edward. Vampires were able to think multiple things at once, Edward was only able to pick up passing thoughts so most of the family had managed to come up with ways to keep most of their thoughts a secret from him. Rose often thought of herself and her beauty, Alice kept her mind on the latest fashions and I just recycled through certain memories of the newborn wars I was a part of. As far as we knew he hadn't figured it out.

I saw him cringe from the corner of my eye and felt a small amount of disgust brush against me as Edward saw my thoughts. I saw the corner of Rose's mouth twitch. She knew what I was doing.

I refused to allow myself to look at Bella for the rest of lunch, though when I felt her emotions change suddenly from calm to overwhelmed, I sent a wave of calm to her. It was more difficult for me to calm her than it should have been, but I didn't think about it as I felt her emotions go back to normal and heard her join a conversation. I stopped listening in, I didn't want to eavesdrop.

I opened my eyes as Rose knocked on my door and walking in. She sat down on my bed. "Want to tell me what's got the Pixie in a whirl?"

I grinned at her, "The new girl apparently."

Rose frowned disapprovingly, "Why? She's just a human."

A small hiss escaped my lips and Rose raised and eyebrow at me, clearly evaluating my reaction to her words. I looked away from her, reading my book, but I knew she figured it out when I heard her sigh, "Oh Jasper."

I looked at her, I really didn't want to have this conversation here. She nodded, "Join me for a walk?"

"Sure thing Rose." We jumped out the window and ran into the forest, stopping when we got out of earshot.

Rose went and sat down on a boulder, looking at me and waiting. When I didn't speak she asked me, "What's going on Jasper? What's with this human?"

"She's my mate." I said simply, there was no point dancing around the issue with her.

Rose sighed, "She's human Jasper."

"I know."

I looked away, why did she have to be human? I heard Rose walk towards me. She put her hand on my shoulder, "Sorry, twin. I want you to be happy. You deserve it after all you've been through, but she's human. It would be dangerous, and not just for her but for the family."

I felt nothing but protective feelings from her. We stood for a while in silence, my mind had naturally drifted back to Bella, when I felt a good dose of humour coming from Rose. "What happened with Edward earlier?"

I grinned, "I saw Bella and I didn't want him to hear my thoughts. Did some blocking, Edward can't stand my war memories."

Rose grinned at me, "He's very delicate isn't he?"

I chuckled, "You haven't felt his emotions when he hears you and Emmett go for it. He gets so embarrassed."

Rose laughed, "I'll have to remember that next time I need to block him. Should we head back?"

I nodded and stood. Rose turned back to me as we were about to run, "About the human-"

I cut her off, "I'm at least going to talk to her. But that doesn't mean that I'll tell her our secret or anything else."

Rose looked at me, analysing me, before she nodded and headed back to the house.

I followed behind her as I thought about how to approach her. I didn't want to scare her, maybe I could bump into her again. Start a conversation with her. I wouldn't have any classes with because we were in different years, but maybe I could find time else where. We reached the house, Alice was waiting outside. Rosalie ran past her and over to Emmett who was playing games inside. I slowed down and came to a stop next to Alice.

She had a big grin on her face. "Don't worry about meeting her, she's smart. She has a senior class, lucky you happens to have that class with her."

I frowned at Alice, "Did you change our schedules? I could have met her somewhere else."

Alice shook her head, "Nope, you just happen to have the same class. I couldn't have planned it better. Even fate wants you to talk to her."

I rolled my eyes at Alice as she pranced back into the house. I jumped up into my room through the window and lay back on my bed, thinking about all the things I could talk about with Bella. I smiled until the sun came up.


	5. Chapter 5

Bella POV

I woke to my alarm blaring. I rolled over and slammed my hand down on it, stopping the sound and slightly cracking the years old clock. I groaned as I tried to make myself get up and ready for school. I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling for another five minutes, before I finally made myself get ready.

I had finished showering and getting dressed when I got a text from Shanna, I pulled out my phone and read it.

_You'll get to talk to dreamboat today:p Should we make a mission plan beforehand or do you want to wing it?_

I grinned at the message.

_Bit of both? I'm a little nervous._

After a few moments my phone buzzed again, _Ok Captain. We'll talk in first period. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to charm the pants off of a certain vamp;) delete this message as soon as you receive it;)_

I grinned and deleted the message. I finished my toast and coffee and went out to the truck. I sighed as I looked up at the dark grey sky, it was definitely going to rain today. Though I suppose right now that's better than sun, the sparkly vamps wouldn't be able to come to school then. I chuckled at the idea of vampires sparkling, it's just so... so lame.

I got into the truck and turned the key in the ignition. LadyBug came roaring to life, I sat for five minutes letting the truck warm up. My mind naturally drifted to the Cullens; Jasper in particular. I wondered what he was like, how old he was-in vampire years, what kind of things he was interested in and what parts of history he had witnessed. My Jasper must have gone through a lot. I made a strangled sound. My Jasper? I sighed and rubbed my head, I could feel a migraine coming on. And as with everything, I decided to shut it out of my brain. There was no use in trying to figure out where that thought came from.

I decided to think about school instead, what subjects and teachers I had. Whether they would actually teach me something new.

I pulled out of the driveway and on towards school. As I pulled into the parking lot, I saw the Cullens' cars; it was hard to miss them. I tried to get a glimpse of the Cullens but they weren't there. I sighed and found a spot. I parked quickly, and jumped out.

The weather was cold and I wrapped my arms around myself as I walked towards my first period classroom. Naturally I forgot to bring a jacket. I rolled my eyes at myself and hurried into the building and out of the cold.

I saw Shanna leaning casually against the wall reading a Forks high pamphlet. I walked up to her and leaned against the wall.

She spoke without looking up, "I know we've only been here a day, but I'm really disappointed that we haven't yet gotten to have a class outside on the grass with a group of our multi-cultural friends."

I chuckled, as she turned to me presenting the pamphlet with the image she just described on it.

She shook her head as if trying to expel the random thoughts and smiled at me. "We've still got 10 minutes till our classes, let's go to the library and talk."

I nodded and we walked. When we got to the library Shanna led us to an empty table in the corner. We pulled out a book each and sat down.

**_So have you thought about how to approach him?_ **

We opened the books and began reading whilst talking. I had pulled out a book about animals, I looked at Shanna's book and snorted.

**_-A book of 1000 chairs? Could you have picked a more random book? Why do they even have that here?_ **

Shanna shrugged.

**_Some of the chairs look cool. Don't change the subject, have you thought on it?_ **

**_-Nope, I thought I'd just stare at him the whole lesson if possible._ **

Shanna nudged me with her shoulder

**_Come on, I have part of a plan. Hopefully he'll take the bait, unlike you._ **

**_-What is it then? What topics?_ **

**_Nothing like that, I'm not having the conversation for you. Go in early and sit in the corner by the bookcase. Oh and take out your weird little pencil topper thing. Use that._ **

I frowned.

**_-Why?_ **

She grinned conspiratorially at me.

**_You'll see._ **

**_-Oh yeah, I was wondering, why didn't you remind me to bring a coat?_ **

I could practically feel her rolling her eyes at me, she chuckled quietly.

**_I'm not your carer Bells._ **

**_-I know, but I'm useless and you always remind me to do that stuff._ **

She smiled.

**_It's all part of the plan. I don't know why, but it is._ **

I sighed, her response made me nervous, it would have been better if I hadn't asked.

Shanna shut her book and turned towards me.

"Let's go."

I looked at the clock on the wall, "We still have time." I moaned.

Shanna shook her head, "You don't. Let's go."

I sighed but was happy that I would get to see Jasper soon. We put the books back in their place and headed to class chatting happily about TV shows. We were talking about possible alternate endings and plot theories for Firefly when we reached Shanna's classroom. The class room already had a few people in there sitting at their computers, Shanna walked in and waved at me, **_Don't forget._**

I rolled my eyes at her and nodded, walking away towards history.

I walked into the room, there were only 2 students sitting down at the front. I walked to the back corner and sat down. I pulled out my books, and my pencil topper, pushing it into place on the end of my pencil.

I stared at it as I waited for class to start. What kind of plan involved a fuzzy monster pencil topper? I couldn't think of a single scenario where this would be helpful. I sat frowning at it for another 5 minutes; when a voice, that sounded like a beautiful mixture of honey and silk, interrupted my useless pondering.

"Excuse me, could I get past the chair please Darlin'"

I looked up to see Jasper Hale with small smile on his lips, I stared at him awestruck for a few seconds before turning a deep red and nodding, moving my chair forward so he could get around me.

He sat down next to me and pulled his books out. I tried my best to ignore his powerful presence by looking back at the pencil topper.

"Is there a secret message on that?" Jasper Hale spoke with humour in his voice.

I blinked and turned towards him confused. He just smiled and pointed at the pencil topper.

I blinked again and shook my head, partially as an answer and partially to get my brain to work again. The latter didn't quite work.

I felt a small amount of lust curl in my stomach as he continued to smile at me, clearly waiting for me to get a hold of my thoughts and continue the conversation.

_Emotions! Oh god._

I dampened my emotions, a skill that I had mastered quickly in Phoenix, and attempted to keep the conversation flowing.

"Umm, no I was just thinking, well staring. Thinking and staring. I don't even know why I have this thing."

I felt my face get even hotter. I decided that words were now my enemy.

"It's funny looking, can I have a look?"

I nodded and attempted to take it off to give to him. It didn't quite work out like that. It refused to remove itself from the pencil so I pulled harder, but instead of coming off in my hand, it flew and hit Jasper on the nose.

We were both silent for a few seconds before he laughed and picked it up off the floor.

I stared at him mortified, why? Why did that just happen? Why didn't he move or catch it? Why? Why? Why?

He examined it while I screamed internally.

"Doesn't it get distracting?"

I looked at him confused, "What?"

"The fuzzy monster, doesn't it get in the way when you write?"

"A little I guess, but I don't really use it that much. I can't even remember why I have it. It's kind of cute though."

"Cute? I guess so." He didn't look convinced, "It's a little embarrassing to be hit by this little guy. He has rainbow hair and slinky arms."

I grinned and blushed, "I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to injure you."

He looked back at me a smiled tenderly causing me to blush.

He opened his mouth to speak again but was interrupted by the teacher rushing into the room panting, "Sorry I'm late everyone. Let's start."

I cursed the teacher in my head as I turned to face the front of the room.

A few minutes into starting the lesson I realised that the teacher wasn't going to teach anything in this lesson that I didn't already know. I was looking out the window to check the weather when I felt Jasper poke my arm. I looked over to see him staring straight ahead. I frowned a little until I noticed that he had written a note to me.

I picked up the small piece of scrap paper reading the neat writing on it.

_Hey neighbor, you look pretty bored. This teacher tends to just read from books, sorry but I doubt it will get anymore interesting in here. You must be pretty good at history to already know stuff in a senior class._

I blushed slightly at his message and replied in my messy script. I grinned as I thought of a way to screw with him a little. Shanna wouldn't be happy that I got draw first blood.

_Great, I was hoping he would talk about more interesting things. I know bits and pieces but I'm sure you know a lot more than I do._

I slid the note back to him and watched him from the corner of my eye. He stiffened slightly as he read my note and I stifled a grin. He started writing and slid the note back to me.

_What do you mean?_

I grinned.

_Well I hear that your family is really smart and you've been in this class longer than me right? I just presumed._

I slid the note back to him and watched as he relaxed slightly.

_Fair enough, are you liking Forks?_

I nodded, as I read it instead of replying. He plucked the note out of my hands and wrote again.

_Sorry, I just realised I haven't introduced myself to you yet, though you probably already know who I am. I'm Jasper Hale, you're Bella Swan right? Chief Swan's daughter?_

I nodded again.

_Thanks for not calling me Isabella. Apparently my dad has been calling me Isabella behind my back. It's driving me crazy having to correct everyone._

He smirked as he read the message.

_You're welcome._

We continued to pass notes to each other for the rest of class, I asked about his family and he described them to me, he asked about mine and I glossed over it, mainly talking about my dad. And much to my displeasure the teacher dismissed us 5 minutes early. We all stood up and packed everything away.

Jasper had finished before I had and leaned against the bookcase waiting patiently for me.

"By the way I'm going to be claiming compensation from you for earlier, I was injured in an accident that wasn't my fault."

I grinned, "What kind of compensation?"

He took a moment to reply, "Lunch? Come sit with me and my family."

I blinked at him, "I'm going to be having lunch with my friend Shanna. We moved here together so we kind of stick together."

Jasper nodded, "She can sit with us to."

I smiled and nodded, "Okay then, we will. You can meet her if you want first? She's a bit of a bitch but I love her. I'm going to her classroom to meet her because we have the same class next."

He laughed and nodded, "Sounds like my sister Rosalie."

We made our way to Shanna's classroom in a comfortable silence.

We were next to Shanna's classroom when one of the girls I had met the day before walked up to me and pretended to accidentally spill her water on me.

"Oh Bella, I'm so sorry." She said in a fake voice. I think her name was Jessica. She pulled some tissues out her pocket and threw them at me, "Go clean yourself up."

She gave Jasper a flirtly smile and wink before she walked away.

I stared after her open mouthed.

**_Did that bitch do what I think she did?_ **

**_-Apparently._ **

I shook my hands of the water and checked the damage. There was a water mark down the front of my top. I blushed and wished that I had bought a jacket.

Jasper handed me some tissues and I dried my hands and as much of my top as I could. Jasper was frowning, it looked like he wanted to hunt Jessica down.

It was rude but not exactly life threatening.

Shanna stormed out of the classroom, looking like she was on the war path. Jasper turned to her confused. She quickly put a mask of calm on her face and looked at my top. "What happened?"

"Some girl just spilled her water on me." I explained even though she already knew.

"On purpose?"

I nodded, "It was one of the girls we met yesterday."

"Her name's Jessica."

Shanna turned to Jasper as if she hadn't realised he was there, "Jessica? The bitch with the brown hair who's eyes are too close together?"

I snorted and Jasper chuckled, "That's the one."

Shanna nodded and turned back to me, moving to the side slightly so that she wouldn't be blocking Jasper, "I'll get her back, since I know you're too nice. It's a shame you don't have a jacket."

I stuck my tongue out at her.

Jasper shrugged out of his jacket and handed it to me. I looked at him in confusion, he smiled, "For the cold and the water mark, you can give it back tomorrow."

I nodded, "Thank you."

My face turned a light pink as I put the jacket on. I started to feel awkward so I told Shanna the plans.

"We're sitting with Jasper and his family at lunch. You're okay with that."

She laughed, "If you say so." She addressed Jasper, "Every time I say she's too nice, she tries to order me around or be mean to me to prove me wrong."

Jasper laughed again, "I take it you're Shanna?"

Shanna nodded, "And I take it you're Jasper Hale? The kids in this town gossip a lot about your family. Is it true that your family holds annual incestuous orgies?"

Jasper and I made a chocking sound. I elbowed Shanna in the ribs and turned bright red, she jumped back slightly.

Jasper finally contained his shock and laughed. "It's not true, we're a pretty normal family."

**_Apart from all the blood sucking._ **

I contained my laughter and spoke to Jasper, "I mentioned that she could be a bitch but I think I forgot to mention that she's really random, says what she thinks and is very inappropriate."

Jasper just smiled, "You're both still welcome to join me and my family for lunch."

I nodded and smiled, "We'd all better get to class. Don't want to be late."

Jasper nodded, "See you both at lunch." I smiled at his retreating figure and turned to Shanna, narrowing my eyes at her.

She just grinned at me, linked her arm through mine and pulled me to our next class.

**_-Did you really need to do that?_ **

She nodded.

**_Absolutely_ **

I sighed, lunch was going to be interesting.

The rest of the classes up till lunch were with Shanna so I spent most of the time thanking her for the tips and berating her for the conversation with Jasper. She sat through it all cheerfully.

When the bell went we walked towards the lunch hall. I could feel my nerves eating at my stomach, Shanna nudged me, "You'll be fine. You don't need to stress so much. Didn't you have a good conversation with him?"

I nodded, "That's not what I'm worried about, I'm worried about the things you're going to say."

She shot me a mischievous grin, "Don't worry, I won't embarrass you. I'm just planning on torturing them a little."

I laughed, "Okay, that's fine. I might join in. Let's start a tally of who can throw in the most jokes."

We laughed as we walked into the queue for food. I spied Jasper and his family, Jasper met my eyes and smiled, he was sitting next to Alice who was bouncing in her seat, unable to contain her excitement.

**_Are we that exciting?_ **

**_-This is probably the first time they've sat with humans at school._ **

**_I guess, but still._ **

Shanna just shrugged at me. I grabbed a sandwich and a lemonade, I turned to Shanna to see that she'd picked up a sandwich, a cookie, an unidentified sloppy hot meal and a drink. I frowned at her, she chose the most disgusting meal they had on offer.

"Umm, sis? What are you doing?"

She just smiled at me handing me the sandwich and holding the tray. She paid for both of our meals, despite my objections and picked up the tray. We started walking towards the Cullen's table.

I saw Jessica sitting at one of the tables, she looked up at me and gave me a fake smile. I pushed down my anger and had planned to walk past her and ignore her. Apparently Shanna had different plans. As we were walking past her Shanna pretended to trip and dropped her tray of food muck all over Jessica. Jessica screamed and stood trying to shake it off, looking at Shanna with anger. Everyone was looking over to us with expressions that were a mixture of awe and shock.

Shanna just looked at her, "Sorry."

She then picked up some napkins off the side and threw them in Jessica's face, "Clean yourself up."

Jessica stared at her opened mouthed for a moment, "You bitch, how dare-"

Shanna cut her off my coming in close to her and speaking in a low voice, "I don't give a shit what you have to say. If you ever try to fuck with my sister again you'll get worse than this."

Jessica backed away from her a little, fear prominent in her eyes. Shanna simply linked arms with me again and pulled my over to the Cullen's table. Jessica left the lunch room with another girl trailing after her. With no more drama to occupy them, everyone went back to their meals and conversations.

We sat down on the Cullen's table, with me sitting next to Jasper. Shanna grabbed her sandwich and started eating as if nothing happened, and for the first minute we all just stared at her. Finally she looked up at everyone. She looked between us and broke the silence, "What?"

Alice looked at her in shock, "I didn't see it."

Shanna looked at her and titled her head slightly, "What do you mean? The Jessica thing?"

I nudged her, "Of course she means the Jessica thing, what other thing could she mean."

Shanna stuck her tongue out at me, "But you guys were only two tables along, how did you not see it?"

Jasper cleared his throat, "She means, that no one had any idea that was going to happen. It was so out of the blue."

**_Of course that's what they meant, by the way I would count that as score one for me._ **

The others nodded. He big guy- Emmett laughed loudly, "That was awesome! You've only been here like two days and you've made a scene."

Shanna grinned at him and Alice seemed to come to her senses and smiled at us, "I can't believe you did that. What did she do?"

Shanna shrugged, "What makes you think she did anything?" Alice stared at her, and Emmett and Jasper chuckled. I just rolled my eyes and answered.

"She spilled water down me earlier, apparently Shanna was more offended by it than I was."

Alice laughed, her voice was like a bell.

Shanna shrugged again. And I sighed again, "Don't mind her, she enjoys messing with people."

Alice smiled and nodded, "I suppose we should introduce ourselves to you, I'm Alice Cullen, this is Emmett, this is Rosalie Hale and you know Jasper." She grinned and I nodded as she introduced everyone. Rosalie looked at me coldly when I smiled at her, I quickly realised that she probably wasn't going to like me. Maybe it was the species thing, but the others were all really nice to me.

Alice was talking to me about fashion and shopping when I felt a disturbance in the force. I looked over at Shanna who had finished her food and was in a staring match with Rosalie. Shanna was staring calmly and Rosalie was glaring back at her. Everyone went quiet and still, watching them. Shanna grinned a little which seemed to send Rosalie over the edge, she stood up from the table and left. We all watched her walk out. Emmett looked like he wanted to go after her but chose to stay at the table instead.

"What's up with her?" Shanna asked us.

I elbowed her, "What? I just smiled, I didn't realise my smile was that morbid and creepy-fying."

I rolled my eyes, "Do you have to try and start a fight with everyone?"

Shanna put her hand over her heart, feigning offence, "I smiled, that was it. In most cultures it's considered polite."

I raised an eyebrow but let it go. "Sorry, she seems to be irritable today."

Shanna stuck her tongue out at me, the others just smiled at me.

"Don't worry about it Darlin', Rose can be a bit touchy sometimes."

Alice decided to change the subject, "So what classes do you two have next?"

I pulled my schedule out of my bag, "I have Biology, which means that Shanna has Latin."

Shanna nodded, Alice clapped her hands happily, "I have Latin to, let's sit next to each other."

Shanna nodded, "I didn't see you yesterday, did you just start?"

Alice shook her head, "I missed yesterday because I needed to send in a form."

Shanna nodded then looked around the table, "Wasn't there another one of you? Is he skipping today?"

They all looked awkward for a moment before Alice responded, "He's gone to visit some family members, he will probably be back in a few weeks."

Shanna put on a worried look, "I hope everything is okay."

They all nodded, Shanna turned to me with a mischievous spark in her eyes, "Didn't you say you had Biology with him."

I nodded, "Yeah, I feel like I offended him. He looked like he wanted to eat me."

They all looked at me with wide eyes, whilst me and Shanna did our best to suppress our laughs.

**_1-1, well played._ **

This time Jasper changed the subject, asking us about how we were doing with the school work.

And the rest of lunch went like that, me and Shanna making subtle comments about their vampirism, and them brushing it off and changing the subject.

All in all, it was a fun lunch. We all then walked towards our next classes, Shanna and Alice walked away to Latin, chatting happily and Jasper walked me to Biology.

The rest of the school day passed quickly. I was pulling into the driveway after dropping Shanna home when Charlie headed out the door with a slight frown on his face.

I jumped out of the truck and headed over to him, "Is everything okay? You're leaving?"

He looked over at me and smiled, "Yup, there's a new troubling case that they need my help with. I have to go back in, I'll be back late tonight. And probably for the next few nights if we don't solve it."

He looked at me worriedly, "I don't feel okay leaving you alone in the house. Maybe you could invite Silvers over? You two could stay here together for the week, It would make me feel a lot better."

I smiled at him, "Sure thing Dad. Don't worry, and stay safe."

He nodded, patted me on the shoulder and bead to his cruiser. I watched him drive away until he turned the corner, before I headed into the house.

I threw myself onto the sofa and began to worry. Was there really a big case? Or was he just trying to get away from me. Was he getting sick of me staying here? What if he kicked me out? Sent me back to Phoenix? I began to hyperventilate when there was a knock on the door. I ignored it, trying to fix my breathing. I got myself mostly under control, Charlie wouldn't have allowed me to come if he didn't want me, and he wouldn't have told me he was worried or told me to ask someone to come over. I took a deep breath as another knock sounded, and walked over to answer the door. Jasper was standing on my doorstep with a worried expression on his face. I stared at him for a while, not really understanding that he was actually there. After a few seconds I smiled at him, he smiled back, somewhat awkwardly and cleared his throat, "Are you alright?"

I nodded, slightly confused. Why was he here? Why did he look so worried? He shouldn't be able to feel my emotions properly. I realised that he had probably heard me hyperventilating through the door. I made more of an effort to look okay, "I'm fine, I just wasn't expecting anyone to come round. How come you're here?"

He gave me a small smile but didn't appear to believe me, though he didn't voice it, "You dropped this on the way to your van," he pulled out one of my small notepads and handed it me, "I couldn't catch you before you left, I didn't have your number but I knew where Chief Swan lived, so I thought I'd bring it to you in case you needed it."

I smiled as I took it off him, "Thanks, I haven't unpacked my bag yet so I hadn't even realised, thank you."

He grinned back at me, "You're welcome," he looked at me with a slightly nervous glint in his eye, "So could I have it? Your number? In case anything like this happens again?"

I laughed, "You sound like you only came over here to ask for my number." I laughed again but Jasper didn't join me. Instead he looked at me steadily, "I did."

I blinked, startled, and said the first thing that came to mind, "I don't think my notebook would appreciate being used and abused like that."

Why was my brain my enemy? Why did it treat me like this?

Jasper just laughed it off, "We had a good talk beforehand, the notebook was all for my plan."

I grinned at him joining in with my weirdness, "My notebook's a people pleaser, it probably thought it was going to get a good deal out of it."

"It got returned to you, I can't think of a better deal."

I blushed slightly, I didn't have a response to that.

Jasper smiled in victory, "Can I have your number then? I'd hate to have to use another notebook as an excuse."

I smiled and rolled my eyes, "If you want."

I pulled my phone out of my pocket, unlocking it, Jasper plucked it out of my hand and went about exchanging our numbers. I waited patiently until he was finished, I looked out at the road and noticed that there wasn't a car there. I grinned internally at the chance to screw around with the pretty vampire.

"Hey, where's your car? You didn't walk here right? It would've taken you longer to get here if you did."

He looked up at me, handing my phone back, and easily came up with a lie. "My siblings dropped me off not too far away, I told them to go ahead instead of wait for me because I wanted to pick something up from the shop."

I nodded, "Do you need a ride back then?" I asked cautiously.

He shook his head, "I fancy the walk, thanks though."

I just smiled, knowing there was no point in trying to convince him.

"I'd better be off home, Esme would be mad if I get back too late on a school night."

I smiled again and nodded, "Thanks again for bringing me my notebook."

He waved as he walked away, and I closed the door, leaning against it. How does Jasper manage to bring out my uncoordinated speech? Why does my brain not want to work properly when he's around? These were questions I would think about another time. My mind was currently occupied by the fact that Jasper Hale wanted my number, my number. I have no idea why he'd want it but he did, enough to come round to my house to return something.

I was basking in the warm feeling when my phone rang, I jumped slightly, wondering whether it would be Jasper. It wasn't, it was Shanna. I answered.

"Hey, what's up?"

"No need to sound so disappointed, I just wanted to ask you how it went with Jasper. Well I know how it went, so more how you feel about it."

I smiled and rolled my eyes, "Want to remind me how that works again?"

I heard her sigh through the phone. "You know that I don't have a clue. I sometimes just know. It's not that weird, there are people out there who just know shit."

"Of course. Well, I feel good about it. Surprisingly good about it. I thought I would have been freaking out more than I am right now, but I'm not. It feels nice. Maybe because you're around for it?"

"Nope, this is all you and him, which is good. We rely way too much on each other for mental strength."

I laughed, "Ain't that the truth. So what's the next step I take with Jasper? Do I call him? Do I wait for him to call me? Do we text? Do you think he'll still want us to sit with his family? I like them, they all seem nice. Except for Rosalie, but I think she could be nice, she just seems very protective."

Shanna's laughter interrupted me, "One question at a time woman. I have about as much dating experience as you- none, so I have no idea about the calling or texting. I assume you wait for him to call you and I think it'll be expected for you to eat lunch with them. And I like them to, they seem nice. Rosalie is just very protective of certain parts of humanity, and her family and mate. That's all I could get from the situation. Did I answer all your questions?"

"Yes, thanks. Charlie said he's helping with a big case and to ask someone to come round to stay until it's over. You up for it?"

"Yeah, that sounds good. We'll have a week long slumber party, I'll bring the vodka and nail varnish. You get the pillows made of feathers and some really bad dresses. We can re-create some films."

I laughed, "You can come round anytime. He's not coming back till late so we can start the slumber party tonight and we can have this whole talk in person."

"Sounds good to me. Give me an hour or so and I'll be there. See you later Bells."

"Bye."

I started making food, chicken fajitas. I finished eating and put all the extra food in the fridge.

I then went to sit on the sofa in the living until Shanna knocked on the door.

I opened the door for her and went to sit back in my original place on the sofa. Shanna walked straight into the kitchen and opened up the fridge. She pulled out the leftovers from the fajitas and sat down next to me, eating from the Tupperware box with a spoon.

"Okay, I know about the conversation, the whole bringing your notebook over to ask you for your number and such. Tell me everything else."

I grinned, "There's not much else. I just can't believe he wanted my number. Maybe he likes me?"

She rolled her eyes at me, "Gee, you think?"

I kicked at her lightly, "Shut up, I don't know. It could've been a friend thing though."

"Just a friend thing? The guy just walked across the town, even though it's not that big of a thing for a vampire, with your notebook to ask for your number. There is no way that this is just a friend thing." She chuckled.

I smiled back but I knew that even if Jasper liked me now he wouldn't once he knew the real me, what I had been forced to do.

Shanna was carefully watching my expression, "Want to tell me what you're thinking Bells?"

I gave her a small smile, "Don't you already know?"

She nodded, "Your expression says it all but it's not the same as actually saying it."

I sighed, "When he finds out about... stuff, he'll be disgusted and stop liking me, and I wouldn't blame him. I'm disgusting."

Shanna gave me a hard look, "You are not disgusting. That man is disgusting. You wouldn't ever call me disgusting for what's happened to me, so why would you call yourself disgusting? And you should give Jasper some more credit, he's got a past himself. Everyone has some form of a skeleton in their closest that they think others will be disgusted at."

I tilted my head at her but she just shook her head, "You'll find out at some point, it's not my place to tell you that."

I nodded, "How do you know about it."

"I have a contact. Are you going to continue this thought train of condemnation and self destruction? Because I'll just end up joining you and we won't leave the house for two weeks like last time. We have to keep each other strong."

I nodded and attempted to fill myself with confidence. I could stay strong, I will stay strong. As long as me and Shanna were together we could keep each other strong. Just like what we've been doing our whole lives.

Shanna smiled as she saw the confidence grow in my eyes.

"So when do you think he'll call?"

The instant nerves crushed my confidence and I groaned, covering my face with a cushion.

"Hopefully never, how am I supposed to talk to him on the phone? How does a phone even work?"

Shanna laughed pulling the cushion away, "It'll be easier to do than you think. Don't you feel more relaxed around him?"

"Yes and no. He makes me feels good and normal, but he also makes me feel so nervous and other stuff."

Shanna laughed again, "You'll be fine, just be yourself. Lunches will be significantly more interesting as long as I'm allowed to sit with you guys. You cannot leave me alone with those other kids, Angela and Ben are fine but the rest... There is no way I'm not coming with you to eat with the Cullen's."

I laughed at the horror on her face at having to eat with other people.

"I'm sure you can still eat with them."

We continued to talk about the Cullens and school for a while.

She smiled, "So more girly talk things, what are you wearing tomorrow? There are certain styles and stuff right? Like popular kid clothes, geek clothes, goth clothes... other people clothes. Which are you picking? That's what women talk about right? Maybe we should go buy a magazine just to be sure."

I chuckled, "I don't know, and I'm wearing my normal stuff. No make overs, we are not re-creating the scene from Pretty Woman."

Shanna laughed, "That's probably a good idea, though to be fair we should probably go to sleep. I don't know how but it's already 1.30."

I blinked and looked at the clock on the side, how did that even happen? We both got up and ready for bed. We slid under the sheets and I fell asleep within 5 minutes, I guess I was more tired than I realised.

In the morning me and Shanna got ready for school and headed off, we followed the same pattern each day for the the rest of the week; we went to classes, ate lunch with the Cullens and spent the evening watching films.

We barely saw my dad at all, he was really busy with the new case. He ended up staying over night at the station most nights.

Me and Jasper had grown closer over the week, we spoke and texted each other all the time, most of the time it was light hearted chats and jokes. We were both holding back from talking about anything too deep, but it was nice to be able to relax and talk to someone other than Shanna. It made me feel more normal, despite the fact that he was a vampire.

On Friday me and Shanna were sitting on top of my truckafter school when Jasper and Alice came over to us.

"Hey guys, not heading back yet?" Shanna asked them when they got into human hearing distance.

Alice responded with a smile, "Not yet, we wanted to ask you two if you wanted to come round to the house tomorrow."

I brightened up, I had felt a little down about not being able to see Jasper on the weekend, and this meant more time to hang out with him and his family.

I nodded, "That sounds great. What time do you guys want us? Where do you live?"

Jasper smiled and stepped forward, "I can come pick you up? It can be a bit tricky to find your way up to the house."

I nodded, "Sounds good."

I looked over at Shanna for confirmation but she was busy staring pleadingly at Alice."

Alice gave a big smile, " How about Jasper takes Bella and I'll pick up Shanna? I need your opinion on the thing we were talking about yesterday."

Shanna nodded rapidly, "Yes, that's a good plan. Everybody's a winner."

I blushed at Shanna and Alice's unsubtle attempt to give me and Jasper alone time.

Alice was bouncing slightly and clapped her hands together, "Now that's sorted we'd better head home." She grabbed Jasper by the arm and pulled him away, he smiled at me before glaring at Alice and letting her escort him to the car.

I chuckled and turned to Shanna, "Let's head back to the house."

She smirked at my excitement and slid off the truck and got into the car.

I spent the rest of the evening grinning to myself, I wonder what Jasper's house was like, and his parents.

When we got back Charlie was leaving, he had messy hair and looked like he had aged 10 years due to stress. He smiled despite this, left the door open a crack and waited for me to park the truck.

"Sorry, I've got to head back to the station again Bells. Hey Silvers thanks for keeping her company."

Shanna smiled at him, "It's fine Papa Swan, I hope the case you're working on gets resolved soon."

Charlie nodded, "It's a tough one, make sure you two stay safe. Stay together if you are going anywhere."

We both nodded at his serious face, he sighed, "I'd better get going, there's some pizza in the kitchen; help yourselves to it."

With that he got into his truck and drove off towards the station.

I turned and looked worriedly at Shanna who was frowning, "I'm worried about Charlie, he's working himself half to death. This must be a big case."

Shanna nodded, "Everyone will have to be very careful, the case isn't likely to be over soon. Charlie needs to rest," she looked over at my worried expression, "It'll be okay, he's just working hard. It's a really important case to a lot of states, he's not overworking to avoid you or anything."

I nodded and looked down, I felt Shanna's hand on my shoulder, "It'll be fine Bells, he'll be able to get some rest over the weekend."

I nodded again and gave a small smile, looking over in the direction Charlie went. I felt Shanna let go of my shoulder and heard her head into the house. I continued to stare down the street for a few moments. The worry was eating a hole in my stomach and chest, what if Charlie got hurt? What if the case doesn't get solved? What if he was only working so hard because he didn't want to be around me? The questions kept circling around in my head untill I took a deep breath and dampened them. At this point the answers didn't matter since there was nothing I could do to change them.

I just needed to work on keeping them down, asking these kinds of questions was a surefire way to drive yourself insane. And I have enough insanity as it is. I walked to the house, taking one last look before shutting the thoughts completely out of my mind and walking through the threshold.

I thought about Jasper instead, my body instantly felt warm and relaxed. I sunk down into the sofa with a smile on my face, suppression and avoidance for the win.


	6. Chapter 6

I fidgeted on the sofa, trying to tidy my hair and straighten my clothes as we waited for Alice and Jasper to get to the house, when a scrumpled up piece of paper hit me on the forehead, I looked up startled. Shanna was frowning at me from the other side of the room, her fingers twitching in annoyance, "Calm down Bells, you're like the energiser bunny; if this room fills up with anymore pep and excitement I'll have to go throw up."

I smiled slowing my movements, "Sorry, I'm just worried. We're gonna see where Jasper lives and meet his parents. What if they don't like me? Or if I trip and cut myself or..." I trailed off as my nerves increased, causing me to start fussing again. This time a cushion hit me square in the face.

"Stop it Bells you're gonna make yourself crazy and give me a nervous tick. I don't wanna send a vase flying at a vamp. It would a pretty lame use of telekinesis."

I nodded but my leg wouldn't stop shaking, after a few seconds a pen flew over and hit me in the shoulder, causing a small stabbing pain, I looked up at Shanna and frowned, "That hurt."

Shanna looked back at me with a partially annoyed expression on her face, "So does your stressing, I now have a minor and hopefully temporary tick, we had better hope that it doesn't happen in Transylvania."

I bit my lip in guilt, "Sorry."

Shanna sighed, "You just need to relax Bells. Get some more confidence, we're just going to someone's house, they're not even human so don't worry."

I laughed, "I guess, humans are somehow scarier than the supernatural."

Shanna smiled, "That's the spirit, now put your head back, close your eyes, and relax."

I did as she said and felt the calming vibes she was sending me relax each muscle at a time.

"Are you sending emotions? I didn't know you could do that."

"Neither did I." Shanna responded, "I think meeting people with gifts let's me access more of mine or something. I have no clue, as per usual."

We laughed, I sat up rolling my shoulders as I heard the sound of cars coming down the road.

"Relax Bells."

I took a deep breath.

**_I just thought I'd remind you that they can hear us now. Let's have a human conversation._ **

Shanna got up and came over to sit next to me.

"Maybe we could go to the cinema this weekend? We could ask Angela and Ben to come with us, whip up a little romance for the two of them?"

I chuckled, "Are you going to meddle in everyone's love life?"

She stuck her tongue out at me, "Only those who are too chicken to sort out their own love lives."

We laughed as a knock sounded at the door, I jumped up and walked quickly to answer it.

I opened the door to Jasper's amazing smile and stood awestruck for a few moments until I felt Shanna come up behind and poke me in the back with a chuckle.

I felt my cheeks heat up, "Hey."

"Hi, Darlin' you ready to go?"

I nodded and walked out the door with Shanna following me.

**_Has anyone told you how smooth you are Bells?_ **

I ignored her, Alice was leaning against the car and came boucing over to us when we got closer.

I smiled at her enthusiasm, "Hey Alice, how are you?"

She smiled, "I'm good, can't wait for this little shopping spree."

Shanna groaned, "How bad are you with shopping?"

Alice widened her eyes with fake innocence, "I'm not bad, I'm great at finding the perfect clothing."

Shanna looked to Jasper with worry, "How bad is she Jasper?"

Jasper grinned, "She is the worst."

I laughed at the fear that filled Shanna's eyes, she looked over to me, "Maybe 3rd wheeling will be better."

I felt my cheeks go red and Jasper smiled in embarrassment.

Shanna and Alice laughed at us as they got into the car, "Have fun guys, see you later."

Shanna waved from the passenger seat as they drove off and I looked up at Jasper as they turned the corner.

"So... how has your day been?" I asked nervously.

He smiled gently at me, "It's been alright, and yours?"

"Same."

He smiled and gestured to his car, "Shall we?"

I nodded and got into his car, the seats were cosy. He walked around, got into the drivers seat and set off. We sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes before I broke it by asking where he lived.

"We live by the edge of the forest, it's quite far out. We love the privacy, small towns aren't really known for it."

I nodded in understanding, "What are your parents like?"

He smiled, "They are very compassionate people, they're always looking out for us all. Esme is very warm, even at our age she tries to baby us and takes as much care of us as possible. Carlisle is a very understanding man, he seems to be striving to save the world."

He smiled as he said this and I could see the respect in his eyes, "You care a lot about them."

I wasn't a question but he answered anyway, "They took me in at one of my worst times, I owe them a lot."

I nodded, thinking of his cover story, "It must have been hard for you losing your parents and having to move in with your aunt."

He looked uncomfortable but nodded, "Though I barely remember my mother now, it was so long ago."

I nodded, "Sorry."

He shook his head, "Don't worry about it."

We fell into silence again, I wondered what Jasper's mum looked like, what time he was from, whether he had other family members. Lots of questions that I wouldn't be able to ask him at the moment. I smiled at the idea of being able to find out.

I looked out the window and saw how fast everything was speeding by, my eyes widened as I looked over at the speedometer. I cleared my throat causing Jasper to glance over at me, "What's up?"

"Umm, are we going at 95 miles per hour? Like speeding down a small road with the high possibility of crashing and becoming pancakes? Like we're going so fast that my panic has turned to calm?"

He slowed down by about 10mph, I remained staring at the speedometer. He laughed, "Sorry, me and my family all like to drive fast. Do you want me to slow down more?"

I shook my head, "I guess this your version of slow, I feel like you probably hate going slow."

He laughed, "But I don't mind it if it makes you feel safer."

I smiled at his kindness, he cleared his throat uncomfortably, "We're not far now, there's a turning up ahead that's quite difficult to spot. It'll only be about 5 minutes after that."

I nodded, we remained quiet until he turned off at an unnoticable, to me, turning. The road got bumpier and Jasper slowed down further to make the ride smoother. I smiled again at his kindness, I know he did it for me, it wouldn't have bothered him.

I got more nervous as we got closer to the house and turned to Jasper, "Do you think your parents will like me?"

He nodded, "Of course, we've told them about you and they like you already."

I blushed slightly, "But what if I do something weird? Or if Shanna does something weird. Oh God what about when Shanna does something weird?"

He laughed, "They'll love you both, we're all pretty weird. I don't think either of you could do anything to drive them away."

I smiled, "You told them about Shanna as well?"

He nodded.

"And they definitely like her? Did you tell them about the Jessica incident? She's not always like that, she cares a lot, she's a really good per-"

"Calm Bella, they like her. Emmett mentioned it to them but they don't like her any less because of it, don't worry."

I nodded, "Sorry, we don't talk to other people much, Shanna even less so than me. I don't want her to miss out on new friends, she's a good person and she's never gone shopping with anyone other than me before. This is the first time either of us are putting in effort to get along with other people and I know it will effect her more than she will let on if they don't like her. She'd deny it but..."

I trailed off, Jasper smiled at me, "Trust me, they'll love the both of you. There's no need to worry, I know you really care about each other."

I nodded and smiled, "We've gone through a lot together."

Jasper nodded, "Like what?"

Luckily I didn't have to answer the question- I wouldn't even know where to start- because the house came into view.

My mouth fell open, it was the most amazing house I had ever seen. It was gigantic, more of a mansion. It was 3 stories and had the most beautiful garden I had ever seen.

Jasper stopped the car and laughed at my expression. I quickly shut my mouth and made my way out of the car.

Jasper came up next to me and tugged at my arm, leading the way to the house.

As I went in I saw that the house was mostly open plan, almost everything was white or a very light colour.

I heard someone clear their throat and turned in that direction. The whole family was in the living room watching us, I blushed at how unobservant I was.

A woman with mid length blonde hair and warm eyes, and a man with short blonde hair and a kind face walked up to us. I assumed that they were Jasper's parents and was proved right when he introduced us.

"Bella, this is Carlise and Esme."

I smiled as I shook their cold hands, "Nice to meet you Dr and Mrs Cullen, you have a beautiful home."

They smiled back, "Thank you dear, but please call us Esme and Carlisle." Esme responded.

I nodded with a smile, they went of upstairs, I assume to leave us 'kids' alone.

Jasper gestured, "You know everyone else."

I nodded as he lead me forward and towards the sofa. It was only then that I noticed that the entire back wall was glass, showing the immense forest backing the house.

I smiled at Rosalie and Emmett. Rosalie shot me a glare but Emmett gave me a big wave, "Hey Bella."

"Hey Emmett, how has your day been?"

He smiled, "Can't complain, been playing some fighting games. Wanna play?"

I grinned and nodded, he came up to me and pulled me by my arm over to the TV.

I mimicked Emmett by sitting on the floor cross legged and he handed me the controller. Even though the main point of coming to the house was to spend time with Jasper, me and Emmett played on the console for roughly 2 hours. He beat me everytime but it only made me more motivated to try harder. The others were sitting on the sofas doing their own thing, Jasper was sitting reading a school book, and it was only then that I realised that he was probably waiting for me to get bored of the game. Emmett beat me again, but instead of demanding a rematch I put the controller down.

Emmett pouted at me, "Come on we've only been playing for 2 hours. I want to beat you some more."

I stuck my tongue out at him, "I think that's enough losing for one day, and my legs hurt."

I smiled at him as I turned towards Jasper, he looked at me worriedly and then shot Emmett a glare.

I blinked, surely that wasn't because I said my legs hurt. I remember being told how protective vampires can get, a warm feeling grew in my stomach and couldn't stop a small smile attaching itself to my face.

I went to sit down next to Jasper, but he spoke before I sat. "Do you want to go for a walk? It might help to stretch your legs a bit."

I smiled and nodded, "Sure."

He smiled back and stood, leaving his book on the chair. He lead the way through the back door and into the forest. I knew that I should feel nervous walking into a forest with someone I hadn't known for very long, but I felt so safe and secure around Jasper that I didn't mind. I had never felt like that before, I felt safe around Shanna but even that can't compare to this feeling. It made me feel a little guilty, I had known Shanna for longer but I felt so much safer and relaxed around Jasper. Not that I didn't feel safe around Shanna, it was just different.

Jasper looked at me curiously, "Is everything okay?"

I looked up at him smiling, "Yeah, why?"

Jasper shrugged, "I'm usually good at reading people I guess, but I can't really tell with you. Just wanted to make sure that you're okay."

I grinned to myself, at least I knew my block worked. "I'm fine, it's been really fun. Your family is so nice, and your house is beautiful."

He beamed at me, "Good, and thank you. They are pretty great, and Esme will be thrilled to hear that you like the house. She designed it herself."

I wasn't suprised that she had, they must create a lot of houses and reuse them. It wasn't the norm for humans though so I put on a shocked expression.

Apparently I was focusing so hard on my expression that I didn't notice a slightly stuck out bit of root. I closed my eyes as I felt the rush of air and surrendered myself to the fall. However the feeling of damp mud hitting my face never came.

I opened my eyes to see Jasper holding onto me and looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

"You didn't even try to stop your fall."

I managed to shrug, "It's easier for me to just let the elements take me, God knows how I'll manage to injure myself by trying to stop it."

He chuckled, "I didn't realise you fell over that much."

I snorted, "It almost feels like I created falling over."

He smiled, "You have a very interesting way of thinking."

His arms tightened around me which is when I realised that he was still holding me in a nearly horizontal position. My face went red as I looked into his amazing topaz eyes, the rest of the world seeming to melt away. His eyes got slightly darker as we stared at each other. And when I couldn't take it anymore I cleared my throat a little and spoke, "Maybe we should head back to the house, Alice and Shanna will probably be back soon."

He seemed to take a few second to register my words before he grinned and pulled me up. We walked back to the house in silence.

Emmett was the only one in the living room when we got back, he was still playing the game from earlier, cheering everytime he won as if it was a surprise.

Emmett paused his game and looked up at us with a smile as we walked in, "How was the walk?"

"It was good, though I think that my clumsiness should be considered a disability."

Jasper chuckled and Emmett laughed loud, "Fall again?"

Emmett had seemed to really enjoy how clumsy I was, and my apparent super power to trip over nothing, I nodded at him. "Though Jasper caught me before I managed to do any real damage to myself."

He laughed again, clapping his hands together like an excited child.

I smelt the most amazing food and my nose automatically moved towards the smell, my stomach grumbled.

"Esme's cooking, she thought you would be starting to get hungry."

I smiled as Jasper guided me to the sofa.

Carlisle entered the room and came to still with us, "Did you two have a good walk?"

We nodded.

I heard the door open and footsteps approach.

"Bells!" Shanna called in excitement as she saw me.

I blinked in shock, I hadn't heard Shanna sound that excited in a long time. She came bouncing over to me with shopping bags in her hands.

I blinked, "Wait... you actually bought something? From, like, a big shop? With clothes?"

She nodded, "Crazy right? Though Alice bought a lot of them. I couldn't stop her. I couldn't stop her. But it was so fun."

I smiled as she sat down next to me, her smile was infectious, everyone had a big smile on their face as they watched her.

Carlisle chuckled, "Most people dislike going shopping with Alice, she can be very commanding about clothes."

Alice pouted as Shanna nodded, "She's a crazed demon girl, I didn't think that level of energy existed in anyone. At one point I almost curled up in the fetal position on the shop floor to pray for forgiveness. But it was still fun."

Everyone laughed at the serious note in her voice.

Shanna smiled, "What did you guys get up to?"

Jasper answered, "Bella played with Emmett on one of his games and then we went on a walk."

Shanna smiled, "Sounds fun." She turned to Emmett, "What game?"

When Emmett told her, her eyes and smile widened, "I love that game."

Emmett grinned at her, "Wanna play?"

Shanna nodded enthusiastically and they jumped into gaming postion- cross-legged infront of the TV- with controllers in their hands.

"We've lost her forever, good luck getting her to leave the house. You have to treat her as a ghost and get an exorcism now."

Carlisle chuckled at my comment, "You two have a very unique way of verbalising thoughts."

Shanna turned her head to look at him, "That's literally the nicest thing anybody has said about the way we talk."

Emmett poked her as the game began and Shanna stiffened slightly, automatically expecting to be hit, but relaxed quickly and was engrossed. We all watched as they played, laughing when Emmett boasted about winning the first few games, to joining in when Shanna was gloating about winning the rest. After about one hour of this, Emmett gave up slumping off dejected to go and find Rosalie.

Alice smiled, "I don't think anyone has ever beaten him at that game, so many times as well."

Carlisle cracked a smile, "It will probably be good for him."

"Do you play that game a lot?" Jasper asked.

Shanna shook her head, "I've never owned a console. I've just played it in arcades and stuff" She explained.

Alice tilted her head slightly, "How come?"

Me and Shanna looked at each other uncomfortably for a second before she answered.

"Ummm, I guess cause I moved around a lot, the less stuff you have the easier it is to move,"

This seemed to confused them more, "Why did you move around a lot?" Jasper asked.

Shanna shifted uncomfortably at the unintentional whole she'd dug herself into, "Different reasons I guess, like new jobs, or fresh starts and whatnot."

She began sniffing at the air, "That smells amazing," She did her best to change the topic.

Carlisle looked towards the kitchen with an adoring smile, "I believe Esme is cooking dinner."

I nodded, I'd forgotten that Jasper said Esme was cooking for us. I started to feel guilty that I hadn't offered to cook, or at least help.

Apparently Shanna felt the same, she stood up, "I'll help her."

I rose to, "I'll join you."

We began to walk towards the kitchen, **_That was way to close Bells, I'm really not ready to show them my skeletons. How did the conversation even get that close?_**

**_-I'm not ready either, but you probably covered well enough, they don't seem like the prying type._ **

We reached the kitchen and saw Esme puttering about between pots and pans. She pretended that she hadn't heard our approach.

Shanna spoke up, "We're here to help, what can we do?"

Esme looked up, "Don't worry about it, I can do it. Go sit down with everyone else."

We both twitched uncomfortably, we weren't used to this.

"We'd feel better if we could help you out in someway though." I said almost pleading.

Esme looked at us and smiled kindly, "If you really want to then you two can chop some vegetables. Could you please ask Jasper to set the table?"

We nodded, Shanna headed into the kitchen and started on the salad, and I walked back into the living room to get Jasper. He stood and came to get the utensils to set the table.

I walked back up to Shanna and began to help her with the salad.

**_-It's going to be fun seeing how uncomfortable they get around the dinner table._ **

Shanna smothered a smile, **_You're so bad, but I was thinking the same thing. I wonder whether they'll actually eat any of it. I wonder whether Rosalie will even pretend._**

**_-She probably will. She won't risk suspicion, even if she hates us._ **

**_I don't think she hates us, I think it's to do with the human thing._ **

**_-Kinda discriminatory._ **

Esme walked over to us, "That looks lovely dears. Why don't you go put it on the table?"

I nodded picking it up and carrying it into the room with the dining table.

"I'll help you carry in the other dishes." I heard Shanna say as I walked away.

Jasper was still setting up the table when I walked in, he smiled up at me and took the salad bowl out of my hands and put it on the other end of the table.

"You getting hungry?" I asked him, mentally adding another point to mine and Shanna's uncomfortable vamp tally.

He gave me a small smile and nodded, "You?"

I nodded. I decided to keep going.

"What's you favorite food?"

He shuffled uncomfortably before answering uncertainly, "Spagetti, I suppose. I haven't really thought about it."

I was still grinning when Shanna and Esme came in with the rest of the dishes. Her mischievous smile matched my own.

Jasper POV

I was so happy to have Bella in my house, I was getting a little jealous that she was spending so much time with my family but that was because I still don't know as much about her as I would like. And I wanted to be the first of my family to get close to her. Bella and Shanna went to help Esme in the kitchen when Alice, Carlisle started to talk low in vampire speed.

"So what happened while we were out?" Alice asked excitedly.

"I already said, she played with Emmett then we went on a walk. She fell and I caught her."

"I told you he'd be fine Carlisle, they went for a walk by themselves and nothing happened. He wouldn't hurt her. She's his mate, he couldn't hurt her."

Carlisle nodded, "It's not that I doubted you son, it's just very rare to find a mate in a human. I've been around a long time and it's difficult to see whether the bond works the same between humans and vampires. I've seen some only recognise it as wanting to protect them and then realised it when the human was changed, Rosalie and Emmett can be considered to be like that. Or they haven't noticed it at all until the human has been changed. I must attribute your notice to how well intuned you are with feelings."

I nodded, still slightly hurt that he didn't trust me but understanding that it was purely from the investigative part of his brain. "I can tell you that it's a lot weaker than bonds between two vampires but it's still undeniable. I can get the gist of what you feel through yours and Esme's bond, and Emmett and Rosalie's and it's very close, it was instantaneous but it is weaker. Most likely because she's still human and most likely can't feel the bond."

Carlisle nodded along interested, "So you can tell whether she feels the bond?"

I shook my head, "I can't feel her emotions at all, Shanna's either. Their emotions are fairly obvious on the surface, like when Bella blushes, but I can't feel them."

Carlisle's eyes widened in surprise, "Edward mentioned not being able to read Bella's thoughts briefly but nothing about Shanna's thoughts. Hmm, I wonder whether they are both shields? That would be astonshing and unlikely though. However humans having the ability to block powers is astonishing as it is."

I nodded in agreement, Carlisle continued, "There have been such cases where humans show an indication of powers of course, one being you Jasper and another being Edward, I was told he seemed to have some sort of 6th sense whilst human. There are also other examples like Jane and Alec of the Volturi, they were to be burned alive for being witches when they were turned."

We ended the conversation when Esme sent Bella to come get me to set the table. I stood and went into the kitchen to get the knives a forks, I made a face at the thought of eating human food. Bella and Shanna stood quietly cutting the vegetables, though there seemed to be a air of playfulness around them. I reached out with my powers but came up against something wall-like blocking me.

I gave up and walked into the dining room and started slowly setting the table whilst thinking about why I couldn't read them. Bella walked in with a shy smile on her face, I smiled back and took the bowl off her, placing it on the other side of the table.

"You getting hungry?"

I froze for second before nodding, "You?"

She nodded back at me, "What's your favorite food?"

I shifted slightly, the names of all human food leaving my brain for a second, I remembered one and answered, "Spagetti, I suppose. I haven't really thought about it." I attempted to sound nonchalant to cover for my earlier stumble.

She smiled and turned towards Esme and Shanna as they walked in with the rest of the food.

I relaxed, she didn't seem suspicious, though I doubt anyone would exactly jump straight to vampire from me awkwardly asking me a question. I sighed internally, I've been doing this for decades, I had no idea how sloppy I was with close encounters with humans. Though I never really got this close to humans, none of us did.

Esme called to everyone, they all walked in- they had smiles on their faces but all of their emotions had an undertone of disgust from the human food. Except for Rose and Emmett, Emmett seemed genuinly excited to have a sit down dinner and Rose was completely disgusted by the whole situation. She agreed because I was adamant and to keep up the charade.

We all sat down, Esme and Carlisle were on either end of the table, I was sitting between Alice and Bella on one side and Emmett was in the middle of Rosalie and Shanna on the other side. Emmett took a big a sniff of all the food, "Smells great Esme."

"Thank you dear, everybody grab what you want."

Shanna's lip twitched, "You should try this Emmett, she grabbed a huge spoon of what appeared to be mashed potato and put it onto Emmetts plate. She looked at him expectantly. Emmett seemed to go a little green as he picked up his fork and scooped a tiny amount of potato.

Shanna tsked at him, "Come on Emmett that's not a real scoop. You won't be able to try it properly. Do you not like potato?"

I saw Emmett about to respond, probably about say that he didn't so he could get out of eating it but I couldn't let that happen. I spoke up before he did, "Yeah, come on Emmett, you love mash, why aren't you eating it?"

He shot me a glare over the table whilst everyone else watched him with expectation, Alice was fighting a giggle.

Finally he got a big scoop of potato and shovelled it into his mouth, trying to swallow it as quickly as possible.

Shanna smiled, "It's really tasty right? Why don't you try these?"

Bells joined in, "And these to, you're huge Emmett you must have to eat a lot of protein to keep those muscles."

When they were through Emmett had his plate piled high with food, Bella and Shanna began to eat with big cheeky smiles on their faces. Emmett began to eat the food, knowing he had no way out, I looked between Bella and Shanna suspiciously, they were smiling like they knew something. I tried to dispel the thought as I napkined some more of my food without our guests noticing.

We all finished our meals, the humans looked replenished while Emmett felt uncomfortable and disgusted at the food he had had to eat. I chuckled quietly and he glared at me again, sending me his betrayal.

Bella and Shanna immediately stood and started clearing up the table, Esme stopped them. "Don't worry about that dears, I can get it."

They both looked up at her in confusion and suprise. Shanna frowned, "But..."

She looked down at the plates in her hands and back up to Esme, unable to find words. Carlisle frowned at them deep in thought whilst they seemed to be battling themselves.

I looked between them confused, Bella spoke, "It's okay Esme, we can do it. It would feel weird if we don't at least help clear up."

Shanna nodded, and they continued to clear the table in perfect synchronicity. We all looked at them in surprise as they took everything into the kitchen. We heard the tap start as they began to wash up, Alice spoke first at vampire speed so they wouldn't hear us.

"What was that about?" I shrugged.

"I have no idea, maybe they're just used to cleaning up after themselves."

Carlisle was still deep in thought but looked up at me, "It's seems to be something more than that. Do you know anything about their home lives?"

I shook my head.

"I think it might have something to do with that. I wouldn't know of course but I have a feeling that those two have had a difficult time at home, or at least and overly responsible life. I have only met them for a few hours but they seem to have very defensive personalities."

I thought back and nodded, "Like when they got awkward when we asked about the game?"

Carlisle nodded, "There was something about that that was a little off, and then she changed the subject when we started asking her about her home and moving around. And she flinched when Emmett nudged her."

"Bella has said that they've been through a lot together, though she didn't elaborate."

Carlisle pinched the bridge of his nose, "I can't say for sure but their behaviour is a little odd, they seem to be very connected. I may be overthinking it though, it's not that strange for humans to form strong bonds."

I frowned, Carlisle was right about their behaviour but he was also hiding something. His emotions were tipping me off, though he wasn't giving off any deception, it was more like he was witholding something. I let it go, it was most likely that he just wanted to think things through a little more before sharing his thoughts. Carlisle was a thinker and it wasn't like him to jump to conclusions, he would tell me his thoughts once he deemed it necessary. And I wanted to find out about Bella's life from her, though I prayed to the universe that she hadn't had a bad life.

Bella and Shanna came back into the room. They had nervous smiles on their faces, "We weren't sure where everything was supposed to go so we left them to dry on the side. I hope that's okay." Shanna asked, addressing Esme.

Esme nodded, "Of course, you two didn't need to clear up though. Why don't we all move into the living room?"

We all got up and moved, I checked the time, 8 o'clock. I smiled, we still had time. I had hoped that I would be able to get some time alone with Bella but my family had other ideas. Emmett and Alice proposed the idea of watching a horror film.

Bella and Shanna looked so enthusiastic about it that I couldn't refuse and ask her to spend time with just me. Alice and Emmett looked over at me in satisfaction. The two demons were plotting against me.

I grinned and sent them a huge burst of giddiness. They broke out into fits of giggles, Bella and Shanna looked at them amused.

Bella looked over, "What's so funny?"

I shrugged, and stopped sending them emotions.

Bella looked at me suspiciously but let it go. We all sat in front of the TV and Emmett put on a horror movie. I sat down next to Bella and during the movie I felt her subconsciously lean towards me. I smiled and caught Rose's eyes from the other sofa. She raised an eyebrow at me, but also gave me a smile and looked back towards the TV.

I smiled at her giving me permission, and put my arm around Bella, pulling her to my side. She stiffened for a few seconds before relaxing, I felt her heartbeat pick up. I felt excitement come from Alice, happiness from Esme, Carlisle and Emmett, and acceptance from Rosalie.

I watched the rest of the film with a smile on my face.

When the film was over everyone except for me and Bella went into the kitchen. I assume it was to give us some 'privacy'.

We both seemed reluctant to stop cuddling, but after a few moments Bella pulled away and looked at me. I looked back at her and smiled nervously.

I shuffled a little in a very human gesture before speaking, "Umm, I was wondering whether you wanted to go out with me sometime? We can go for food or something?"

She beamed at me nodded, "That would be good. When?"

"Whenever you want darlin'"

I heard her heartbeat speed up as my accent came out. I grinned and filed that information away for later.

"Should we join the others?"

I nodded and we headed into the kitchen, everyone looked up at us with knowing smiles when we walked into the kitchen.

Bella turned bright red and walked over to where Shanna was, linking arms with her.

"It's getting pretty late, we'd better get back." Bella said with slight reluctance.

I nodded, "I can drive you both back."

"Thanks."

Shanna looked between us two and raised an eyebrow, "I have to pick some things up from my place, you two go without me, I'll make my own way."

I could tell that she just wanted to give me and Bella some more time together. It wasn't hard to tell that we wanted to spend more time alone. Esme looked at her concerned, "It's late to walk that far."

Shanna smiled, "I'll be fine, you don't need to worry."

Esme still looked unhappy. Then to everyone's suprise Rose spoke up, "I can drive you."

It was silent for a second, "There, it's decided." Esme said pleased, not giving Shanna a chance to refuse.

"Thanks Rosalie."

Rose nodded.

Bella and Shanna thanked Esme and Carlisle for dinner and said their goodbyes.

The four of us headed out to the cars. Shanna and Rose drove off.

I opened the door to my car for Bella and walked around to the other side to get in. I started driving to her house, "How did you find today?" I asked her.

"It was great, your family is so nice."

I smiled, "Where would you want to go on our date?"

She was silent for a few moments and I peeked over at her. Her face was bright red.

"How about I message you another day?"

She nodded, still bright red.

I pulled up outside her house, she looked up at me, "Thanks for driving me home, talk to you later?"

"Of course."

She got out of the car and walked up to the front door, she turned to wave as she opened the door. I waved back and she went it.

I leant my head back against the back of the seat and closed my eyes. A date, a date with Bella. I knew that I wasn't supposed to get too close to her, but it was too late. And I knew that it was too late from the first moment I laid eyes on her. I sighed at my weakness to my own emotions. But smiled anyway, what's to stop me if I've already accepted that it's to late. I decided, I would like Bella how I wanted. I wanted to be with her, though there were a lot of other things I would have to think about if I wanted to be with her, but I'll cross those bridges when I get to them.


	7. Chapter 7

Bella POV

I lay in bed looking up at the ceiling thinking of Jasper, when Shanna walked through the door. She had a backpack on her shoulder that she put on the desk, before she pulled out some pyjamas, and walked back out of the room.

I went back to thinking of Jasper for the next 10 minutes. This time when Shanna walked in, she got into the bed next to me and looked up at the ceiling as I was. I turned to look at her, "What happened with Rosalie?"

She shrugged, "We spoke a bit and she dropped me off."

I frowned, "That's it?"

Shanna nodded, "There wasn't exactly much that she could say to me, they're still under the impression that we don't know what they are. I think she's going to try and get along with us. For Jasper, you can see how much they all mean to each other. Rosalie and Jasper may as well be actual brother and sister."

I nodded, and was silent for a second whilst trying to find a way to ask Shanna about me and Jasper.

She broke the silence, "Ask me what you want Bells."

I nodded, "What do I do about this thing with Jasper? How do I know if he likes me?"

She sighed and rolled onto her side, facing me, "Well I doubt that they ever invite humans to their house for one but Bells, how have you not figured it out yet? Why don't you think about what Jasper makes you feel and what Miss Pretty Red said? It's pretty obvious, if you properly think about it you'll get it in seconds."

I frowned and thought. Jasper made me feel warm and happy, he made me feel complete, other than the weird pulling thing. It's like my body is trying to make me go somewhere. Like I was missing a part of myself.

My eyes widened as I thought about it and I shot straight up in bed, my mouth wide open.

Shanna sat up as well, with a big yawn, "You realised it yet?"

I looked at her with the same shocked expression, "Mates? We're mates? But that doesn't make sense, I'm human, and... and, it doesn't make sense, how can we be mates? MATES?"

Shanna yawned again, her eyelids drooping, "Yes, you're mates. It makes sense to me, vampires can mate with humans, it's just rare. He cares for you the same way, if not more than how much you care for him. Mainly because he can feel the bond more than you can."

"But... mates? We're so different, he's beautiful and strong and smart and amazing, while I'm just me."

Shanna sighed, "Jasper thinks those same things about you, you're bonded to each other. And before you say it, no it's not against his will. Do you feel like you liking Jasper is something you're being forced to do?"

I shook my head, "But he feels it stronger than I do right? So what if it's different for him?"

Shanna sighed again and slid down so that she was partially lying down, only half propped up again the wall, "Shut up Bells, that's not how these things work and you know it. You being human and him being a vampire isn't really that much of a game changer either. You just have a choice to make."

I nodded, "But... does that mean..." I trailed off unsure of how to continue.

"Does it mean you'll be changed into a vampire?"

I nodded, Shanna put her hand on my shoulder, "That is entirely up to you. It's something that you will need to think hard about, it's not something to be taken lightly. There are many advantages and disadvantages to it, you know pretty most of them from Miss Pretty Red, but you need to think about it. You don't need to make a decision about it now though, take your time and relax."

I nodded again and lay back down, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but Shanna was right, I didn't have to make a decision right now. I closed my eyes and took deep breaths as I tried to sleep. One thought kept going through my head over and over until I feel asleep.

Jasper is my mate, my missing half, and he feels the same way about me. The concept of it was crazy, but deep down nothing had felt anymore right. Knowing that Jasper must feel the same way did wonders for my confidence, but I still couldn't completely shut out the doubt that he didn't want me, I knew it was something that would take time to leave, if ever, but I would do my best to fight for what I want and, according to Shanna, deserve.

Jasper POV

I sat waiting for Rose to return after dropping Bella at home. I knew that she wouldn't be too much longer, but I began to tap my foot impatiently. I trusted Rose, but I was still worried that she might have said something to offend Shanna, though I doubted much could offend her. But the worry that Bella may also get hurt was what was keeping me anxious. I got a small, strange pang in my heart at the thought of it and wished that Rose would hurry up.

Everyone else had gone for a quick hunt so I wasn't annoying anyone with my obnoxious, human gesture. Though it was unlikely anyone but Emmett would call me on it anyway. Luckily, I heard her car driving up to the house before I made a dash to Bella's house to make sure they were okay.

I stopped my foot from tapping and stared at the door, listening to Rose's painfully slow footsteps head up the drive and to the front door. She walked in and spied me looking in her direction. She sighed, rolling her eyes, but headed over to me anyway and sat down on the sofa next to me. She crossed her legs and studied her nails whilst waiting for me to begin the conversation.

I looked at her, thinking of how to begin, I felt her annoyance spike and she started talking, "I just spoke to her Jasper, I didn't say anything bad. You know I wouldn't do that, otherwise you would have stopped me from driving her back in the first place."

I nodded, "I know, I don't know why I'm so on edge. Why did you offer to drive her back?"

Rose shrugged, "I hadn't exactly been nice to her and I know how you feel about Bella. This is important to you and I want to show you that I won't constantly be a bitch to them."

I smiled at her and sent her my gratitude, "Thanks Rose."

She rolled her eyes at me again and gave a small smile, "This doesn't mean I like the situation or either of them though. I don't want the family to be in danger. Though I do have to thank them for sending Edward away for a while, It's been a long time since I've had my thoughts to myself."

I smiled, and nodded in agreement.

Rose stood, "I assume the others are out hunting? Want to go? I'm guessing you didn't go because you wanted to interrogate me."

She raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow at me as I smiled bashfully, "Yeah, let's head out."

We dashed out the door and into the forest backing the house.

Bella POV

I opened my eyes to sun shining brightly through the curtains, I groaned and turned my face away. The bed was empty, I frowned and sat up. I had gotten used to waking up with Shanna there, it was a little disorienting to wake up alone, where had she gone? I didn't have to wonder for long, as I heard the clanging of pans from downstairs. I looked over at the clock, 9:00, I yawned, got out of bed, and headed to the bathroom.

After I washed up and dressed, I headed downstairs to the kitchen, still half asleep. There were two plates of pancakes on the little table and two glasses of orange juice, Shanna was slowly eating her pancakes, and looked up as I came in.

"Mornin'" She said around a mouthful.

I smiled at her and sat down, practically inhaling the food, my brain began to wake up as I finished them, and I almost choked on the orange juice, "Me and Jasper are mates!"

Shanna rolled her eyes at me as she finished her last forkful of pancake, her eyes closed and she smiled, "Pancakes are my mate."

I snorted in laughter, "They are pretty great. What's the plan today?"

I picked up the plates from the table, put them in the sink, and started to wash up, "Well first, you're gonna ask me questions for a while about Jasper and his family, then we'll talk about vampires in general, and then I'm going out."

I nodded, but frowned when she mentioned going out, "Where are you going?"

"Out, you're going to stay here."

I turned to her and pouted, she just stuck her tongue out at me. "Fine, when will you be back?"

She laughed, "I don't know yet, you sound like my wife."

I chuckled, "Not to sound anymore like your spouse, but I do need to put some laundry on. I put your clothes in as well."

Shanna laughed again, "Thanks Dear."

When I finished, we went into the living room and sat down, Shanna drew her knees up and cuddled a cushion to her, "Ask away."

I stopped myself from asking every question at once, "From when did you know that we were mates?"

Shanna sighed, "Ask a question that matters."

I stuck my tongue out at her, "Okay, how old are the family?"

"Carlisle's the oldest at around 300, but don't ask questions as if I'm Jasper. Ask a question you don't think he'd be able to answer, or might not think to tell you."

"You've got a lot of rules for questions."

She stuck her tongue out at me, "Otherwise we'd waste time."

I nodded again, and thought hard, "Are there a lot of vampires in the world?"

Shanna nodded, "Not as many as humans but there are a fair few, we don't see them because many of them keep themselves hidden, and not all of them try to blend into human society, not usually worth the risk."

"So is there a vampire society? Do they have rules?"

"They have some form of a society, and they have rules, they're not supposed to let humans know about what they are, unless they're going to be changed or killed."

I thought on it for second, a name floating around my mind, "And it's enforced by the Volturi?"

Shanna nodded, "Miss Pretty Red talked a bit about them, but not much, it'll be hard to remember everything she said."

"So, what is the Volturi?"

"They are a big coven of vampires who rule over the vampire world. They make sure that nobody breaks the rules."

"How? If all vampires are as strong as each other, how can they make the entire race listen to them?"

"They are a very big coven, at least 20 of them, and they're all trained in combat. That, and they have a lot of gifted vampires with them. I'm not sure of all of their powers, but there's a a boy who can remove all of your senses, a girl who can change the bonds between people, and a girl who can cause people pain by looking at them."

"Cause pain just by looking at them? That sounds horrible."

Shanna nodded, "It's supposed to be the worst pain imaginable, I feel bad for her though. Everybody must be scared of her, she probably doesn't have many friends or anyone who would want to be around her in case they got hurt."

I nodded, but wasn't sure I agreed. A power like that could easily warp someone's mind.

Shanna continued, "The Volturi is run by three kings, Aro, who can read all the thoughts a person has ever had, Marcus, who can read the ties between people, and Caius. They've been around for like 3000 years, they have a castle in Italy."

I thought on it for a moment, "But what about the other covens? Ones with a lot of vampires in them? Wouldn't they try to gain control?"

"It is very rare for that many vampires to form a coven together. Most are nomads or travel in pairs, the most they tend to have in a coven is four. The Cullens' are an exception. The Volturi tend to have an issue with bigger covens, or I guess they just keep an eye on them. They don't want anyone to try and destroy what they've built. They've had to destroy a lot of vampires and humans in their time to protect the vampire way of life."

I shuddered at the thought of it, "I don't like the sound of them, they seem cruel."

Shanna shrugged, "Maybe, but I've not seen their methods, nor have I met them. It would be foolish for me to create an opinion based on stories, but what they do does seem rational, possibly a little over the top, but it serves a purpose and they are protecting all vampires. But again, I wouldn't know."

I nodded, then a darker thought came to me, "What would they do if they found out we know?"

Shanna gave me a grim smile, "Either kill us or demand we be turned. So kill us or kill us. This says nothing of what they might do to the Cullens' if they think that they told us. They'd probably be alright with you knowing because you're Jasper's mate, they'd expect that you'd be turned. But I don't know about me, basically it will be kept from them for as long as possible."

I nodded, "What about you?"

Shanna frowned a tilted her head slightly, "What do you mean?"

"Well, would you be turned as well?"

Shanna smiled at me, "It's a bit soon for that question, I can't answer that right now."

I nodded and frowned, I would file her answer away to dwell on later.

"Is there anything else you want to ask?"

I thought on it but couldn't organise the thoughts and questions in my head to find the important questions.

Shanna seemed to notice my focus and stress, "You don't have to think everything up now." She smiled, "There's still time."

She stood, "I'm going out now, I'll be back in the evening. You can ask me questions then if you want. Could I borrow your truck?"

"Sure, the key is in the bowl, I'll see you later." I crossed my arms, feeling moody.

Shanna chuckled at my expression, "Thanks, I'll be back later."

I heard the jangle of the keys as she picked them up and walked out, then I heard the roar of LadyBug. I sat there for 10 minutes not knowing what to do when I heard a car pull up into the driveway.

I frowned and turned as the door opened, a very tired looking Charlie walked in.

"Ch- Dad!" I exclaimed in surprise. I stood as he smiled and walked over to me.

"Hi Bells, sorry I've not been around for a while, this case has everyone at the station pulling all-nighters."

When he got closer I saw the dark circles and bags under his eyes, he seemed to have aged 10 years from when I last saw him.

"Do you want me to make you some food? You must be hungry." I began babbling nervously, and at an increasing speed, Phoenix memories fluttering in the corners of my mind, "I was about to start clearing up, I didn't realise you would be back. I'll have everything cleaned up in no time. I'm doing the laundry tod-"

Charlie cut me off by placing hands firmly on my shoulders and giving me a firm look, "Calm down Bella, I don't expect you to do all those things, and I certainly won't be angry if you don't. Don't forget you're still my child. I should be doing these things for you, not the other way around, I'm just sorry that this case is taking up so much of my time."

I blinked, confusion filling my brain, why wasn't he mad at me? I haven't cleaned up the kitchen, or gotten dinner ready, or done the laundry.

"Bell's you don't need to worry about the cleaning or anything like that. I tend to let it slip a little," He blushed slightly, "But it's not all your responsibility. Though thank you for doing it this week, I've been so busy with this case that I've barely had time to sleep, let alone clean."

He took his hands from my shoulders and scratched at the spiky stubble growing on his chin. "I wanted to spend some time with you, since I haven't been able to be around. I don't think I'll be around next week either, they've got everyone working."

I nodded, "What's the case?"

Charlie looked at me grimly, "We've been finding bodies, a lot of them. I can't really talk about it, but it's a very high priority case. The people have been found in Seattle, Port Angeles, and a few in Forks. All hands are on deck."

I nodded, "Me and Shanna were gonna go over to the cinema in Port Angeles with a girl we met at school."

Charlie smiled, "I'm glad you've made some friends, but please be careful, this monster seems to go for anyone, make sure you all stay together and stay safe."

I smiled, "Of course we will."

Charlie nodded, "So what would you like to do today? We could go out for a meal? Or maybe visit Billy? He's been wanting to see you for a while, Jacob to."

I smiled, knowing that he wanted to go see them, "Sure Dad, it will be good to see them again. Shouldn't we ask Shanna as well? I know she misses them, especially Sue's cooking."

Charlie snorted, "It's hard not to miss their food."

Charlie craned his neck looking for her, only just noticing she was gone, "Where is Silvers?"

"She went out for a bit, she didn't say where."

Charlie looked worried for a moment clearly thinking of her being out on her own, before relaxing, smiling, and muttering to himself, "It would be a big mistake for anyone to even try to over-power that girl."

I didn't think I was meant to hear him, so I smothered a smile at just how right he was.

He spoke up, "Give her a call, we can head there first, and she can meet us."

I made a noise of agreement, and went to find my phone as Charlie went upstairs to shower and change.

I found my phone between the two sofa cushions, found her number and rang, she picked up after 3 rings, "Hey Bells, what's up?"

I heard noise in the background, "Where are you?"

"I'm shopping, what's up?"

"Me and Charlie are going to the reservation, do you wanna come? We can meet you there?"

I heard her excitement through the phone, "Yes! I haven't seen them in ages, I miss them... And their food."

I laughed, "I figured you would know we were going. What are you buying?"

"Nope, it was a possibility, but I knew you needed to spend some time with Charlie. This is actually great, you'll be able to talk to Jacob, he's gonna let it slip to you about vampires, his tribe has a very long and important history with them. He doesn't believe in it, but he doesn't understand it's importance yet."

I heard the hum in her voice that signified something important, potentially dangerous, and definitely annoying.

I sighed, "What experiment do you have me in this time?"

"No experiment, just listen to what Jake has to tell you, I'll arrive after that."

I sighed again, "Okay, but this had better be interesting."

Shanna laughed, "I'll see you later Bells."

The phone disconnected, and I put it back into my pocket.

I sat back down, and thought about what Jacob would say to me, what importance it could have. I was actually interested, despite the fact that the one normal contact I had would now not be so normal.

A few more minutes passed before I heard Charlie come back down the stairs, he had regained a few of the years he seemed to have lost while working on the case. He had shaved, and trimmed his moustache.

He smiled at me whilst descending the last of the stairs, "Ready to go?"

I nodded and we headed out to the reservation. The car ride was quiet and comfortable. And in no time we were turning into their driveway. Before we got out of the cruiser, the door opened and I saw Jacob with a huge smile on his face. I got out and grinned back at him, he had grown up a lot and was sporting a very handsome face, and thick dark hair that reached his shoulders.

He hugged me as I reached the door, I froze for a few seconds before tentatively hugging him back.

He pulled away still smiling, "Come in."

We walked up the small ramp, and into the house, I saw Billy come in from the kitchen in his wheelchair, a six-pack of beer on his lap. He stopped just before me and reached out his hand.

"Hey Bella, you've grown so much. It's great to see you." He smiled warmly at me, we shook hands, "Living with the old man again, guess he's got you cooking, doesn't know how to make toast that one."

Charlie snorted, "Like you can do any better, I know Sue probably makes most of your meals for you."

I laughed at their antics. They both headed for the TV, and Billy offered a beer to Charlie, which he happily took.

Jake nudged me, "Come on, they'll be here for while. Wanna check out the beach? You haven't been here for ages, you probably forgot what it's like."

I laughed, "Cold, but fun to explore, I remember."

He smiled and we went out the door, as we walked to the beach Jacob filled me in on all the changes on the reservation since I'd been gone. He was still best friends with Quil and Embry, his sister Rachel had married and moved away, and now he restored old motorbikes and cars.

I smiled and nodded, as he said all of this, interested in the changes that had happened. I saw a group of three young men all standing around, they looked up and stared in our direction without looking away or blinking once, Jacob ignored them and carried on with his stories, I followed his lead and did the same.

We finally reached the beach after about 10 minutes, and I was pretty much caught up, "Not much has changed around here, I like it." I said once he had finished.

"It's nice, kinda like picking up from where we left off," he agreed.

"Hey, is that little cave still here?"

Jake laughed, "Yeah, you still remember that?"

"Of course, we all used to play around there and made it our hideout." I laughed at the memories, "You, me, Shanna, Quil, and Embry."

"Those were great times, we'd be pirates, or explorers, and had to survive out in the wilderness. Where is Shanna anyway? Charlie kept talking about her coming back as well."

"She's out shopping or something, she's coming by a little later though."

Jake smiled, "Good, I'll tell Quill and Embry to come to."

We had been walking along the beach for a few minutes now, and I saw the familiar cave, child me grinned in excitement, and sped up to check it out. It hadn't changed a bit, other than being a bit smaller than how I remembered it. I crouched a little as I went in and sat down on a flat rock, looking around. Jake followed me in, and sat down next to me.

"I really missed you Bells, I'm glad you're back."

I looked at him, he was looking down, fidgeting and blushing. I kept staring at him confused for a few seconds before my phone buzzed.

It was a text from Shanna, _He's got a little crush on you idiot._

I groaned internally and decided to change the subject, the group from earlier re-entering my mind, "Who were those guys earlier? They looked really intense."

His fidgeting stopped, "Sam Uley, Jared Cameron, and Paul Lahote. They're super weird, they always stare at me, and try to talk to me about legends and all of that."

I perked a bit at the mention of legends, I guess this is where he tells me about vampires, "What legends?"

Jake turned to me smiling, "Super secret Quileute horror stories."

I smiled, and he laughed, "They're the stories that get passed down through the family, the main one is about the cold ones."

"The cold ones?"

"Vampires, they have ice cold, diamond hard skin, incredible hearing and sight, and a thirst for human blood. Our tribe is here to protect humans from these creatures. We are able to do it by the power that was bestowed upon us. We are wolves, our speed matches the vampire, our teeth can tear their skin, but they are unable to feed on us, our blood is toxic to them. They were banished from our lands to protect the people. We stop becoming wolves when the cold ones leave, but should they return, so will we. And they have, they returned in the form of the Cullens."

He finished talking and I remained staring at him, processing the information he told me. I was startled out of my thoughts by Jake's loud laugh, "Did I scare you? It's just a story that they pass down, though most of the tribe do take it seriously and actually stay away from that Cullen family."

I laughed along with him, "I was just thinking about it, it's pretty interesting."

Jake shrugged, "I guess, I just wish they would stop staring at me, it really freaks me out."

I nodded, "It is pretty weird, it's like they're waiting."

"Yeah, I was friends with Jared for a bit, but he got all weird and started hanging out with Sam. I bet it's some sort of cult. He stopped talking and hanging out with most people. He just stays with Sam, doing what he says and being creepy."

I grinned, "Jealous? Maybe you should go wolf on them."

Jake laughed, "Getting into the legends? They're just stories told to scare people into being safer and stuff like that."

"What other legends are there about the tribe?"

Jake smiled and thought for a bit, "A lot of the them are about the cold ones, or whatever. There's one that talks about a treaty with the vamps, one's that talk about our supposed spiritual powers, and a bunch of other ones."

I tilted my head slightly, "Treaty?"

Jake nodded, "Apparently my ancestor Ephraim Black spoke to one of the vampires, the vampire promised not to harm anyone, and my he believed him because his eyes were different, showing that they didn't feed on humans. So they made a treaty, the vampires are not to harm anyone and must never cross the boundary into La Push, in return the wolves wouldn't hunt them. All of the vampires who were in that group had to sign it, and it helped create some sort of peace."

I nodded, "Who were the vampires? Did they ever attack anyone?"

Jake smiled at my enthusiasm, "They didn't attack anyone, the treaty is still intact. And they're supposed to be the Cullens. Stupid right?"

I smiled and nodded, so not only had the Cullens' been here before, but they even had a treaty with the tribe.

"So why was it Ephraim Black who made the treaty?"

"He was the leader, he was supposed to be very strong spiritually, they say that you couldn't disobey what he said because his voice was so full of power."

"Did he turn into a wolf to?"

Jake laughed at me, "I think you're taking all this a little too seriously Bells, they're just stories."

I leaned back and forced a laugh, "Sorry they're just interesting."

My phone buzzed again, _I'm on my way now, I should only be about 10 minutes. Find out anything interesting?_

I smiled at my phone and replied, _Just about the treaty, he didn't really say much about the Cullens'_

My phone buzzed about 5 seconds after I hit send, _-_- that's all you took away from the talk?_

I frowned, _What else would I have gotten?_

_Aaaaawooooooooooo_

I frowned before realisation hit me, and I started typing furiously, _They're actually wolves? WHAT?! Is Jake one as well?_

_-_- Yeah, not all the information was going to be about the Cullens' :p He's not one yet, but it's very likely that he will become one._

_Is that why those other three look at him weirdly, are they wolves as well?_

_If you're talking about Sam then yes. We'll talk about this another time, I pulled the truck over to message you, I'll see you at the house._

"Messaging your boyfriend?"

I laughed and rolled my eyes, turning to look at Jake, "No, it was Shanna, she said she's on her way and that she'll meet us at the house."

Jake chuckled, "I'll call Quil and Embry, do you wanna head back?"

"Yeah, it's going to be so good to have us all back to together again."

"Yeah, though I wonder how long it will take for Shanna and Embry to start bickering and setting traps for each other."

"I forgot that they were like that with each other. Remember when she chased him around for half an hour with a worm?"

Jake slapped his leg and laughed loudly, "That was great."

We made our way out of the cave towards the house, remembering all of the things we all used to do as children, the walk felt like it only lasted a couple of seconds, and we were close to tears by the time we got to the door. Remembering those carefree days made me feel a lot better, even with who I had for a mother, I still had great childhood memories that could never be taken away.

Jake opened the door, and we walked in on Charlie, Billy, and Shanna watching the game, I think it was football. Shanna was sitting cross legged frowning at the screen.

Cheering came from the TV, and Charlie and Billy, Shanna's frown deepened, "But he dropped the ball!" She said, pointing accusingly at the TV, "He dropped it, why is that a good thing?"

Billy and Charlie laughed, "Because it got the team closer their end of the field."

"But he's just dropping the ball and falling on the floor, he's playing badly, but is still doing well. That doesn't make sense. Where's the skill?"

They laughed at her again, "Doing that is a skill, he artfully made the start-line closer to where they need to be."

Shanna crossed her arms, "I can't believe this is a sport, basketball is better, at least they have skill."

They both just laughed at her again, she jumped pointing at the screen, "See, he's rolling on the floor complaining, that other guy barely even touched him, he clearly doesn't care about playing."

Charlie raised an eyebrow at her, still chuckling, "Have you ever been 'barely touched' by a 250 pound wall, I can't imagine it's easy to walk off."

Shanna pouted for a few seconds, "I don't think I'll ever like this game."

Me and Jake laughed along with Billy and Charlie, they looked up at us.

Shanna grinned and jumped, "Hey Jakey!" She came over and hugged him, "Where were you guys? They've been bullying me for ages now."

Jake put fake sympathy into his voice, "It must have been rough, the entire two minutes of it."

She stuck her tongue out at him, but a big grin lit up her face as she looked past us. I frowned as she moved around us, but smiled when I saw Quil and Embry walk up the path, Shanna threw herself at them, and they laughed as they hugged her back.

"How are you guys? It's been so long."

They all pulled back from the hug, and me and Jake moved over to stand next to the three of them.

I cautiously hugged Embry and Quil, whilst still showing my enthusiasm to see them.

"I've been alright." Embry replied, Shanna nodded her head and looked up at him, "I'll say, you've grown like 7ft, what kind of greens are you eating?"

He laughed, "Just a growth spurt."

"But you do make me feel tiny now," Quil complained, he was around an inch or two taller than me and Shanna, but still shorter than Jake and Embry.

"That's because you're tiny," me and Shanna said at the same time, he stuck his tongue out at us, "You two are one's to talk, I'm taller than both of you."

"Bet I could still beat you in a fight though." Shanna taunted, Quil just continued to stick his tongue out at her.

"Sue is making a big dinner for everyone, we're gonna have a bonfire." Embry said with a huge grin on his face, "We saw her as we were coming over, she's happy to be able to feed you guys again."

"And we're super happy to eat her food," Shanna replied.

The five of us went on a walk, catching up with each other and remembering our childhood. When it started to get dark we headed over to a section in the woods were everyone was gathered.

There was a huge bonfire surrounded by benches. And we saw Sue look up and smile as she came up to us. She hugged me and Shanna tightly.

"I've missed you two, it's been too long."

"It has, we missed you as well."

Sue smiled, again, "We've made a lot of food and invited most of the reservation over. I thought it would be nice to have a little get together again."

I nodded, "It's a great idea, it will be really good to see everyone again."

We went and sat down together, keeping ourselves warm with the heat of the fire. Throughout the evening everybody greeted us, and welcomed us back. We played games and ate Sue's delicious food - though how she had managed to make so much was beyond me.

We all relaxed after eating which was when I noticed that the three guys me and Jake had met earlier were at the far end of the benches, looking over at us. I shifted uncomfortably and looked over at Shanna, who was staring back at the boys with equal intensity and before I could ask her what was going on, she stood and walked over to them, sitting down next to them.

They looked at her in shock before bowing their heads slightly. My mouth fell open, what was going on. I saw Shanna's mouth move as she spoke to them, but couldn't hear what she was saying. The boys nodded along before replying, finally Shanna walked back over to us.

We all stared at her for a while, before Jake spoke, "You just spoke to the cult, what did you say?"

Shanna shrugged, "Just saying hi."

"But they don't really talk to anyone anymore." Quil said incredulous.

Shanna shrugged again, putting an end to the conversation.

I helped to change the subject, "So where are the elders? Didn't they want to come tonight?"

Embry shrugged slightly, "I think they're sorting out some business or something, I think it's something to do with identifying animals that live in the forests around here."

I nodded, "For what?"

"The police found bodies, and they think that a wild animal is responsible."

"My Dad was telling me about it, but I didn't realise that they thought it was an animal."

"Yeah, apparently it's a huge one, though I don't think anything grows as big as what they're saying."

"I dunno, I've seen some pretty big animals out there." Jake responded.

"But were they predators? I don't think there are any that big."

"There could be."

That sparked a debate on how big certain animals could grow, which lead to talking about hunting and fishing, which somehow lead to us talking about funny videos online; and before we realised it, several more hours had passed.

Charlie walked up to us, "Are you two ready to head back? It's getting late, and it's a school day tomorrow."

We nodded, said our good byes to everyone, with promises that we'd come visit more often, and headed to the car.

Charlie opened the cruiser door, "You two take the truck. You're still staying round right Silvers?"

"Yup."

Charlie nodded, got in the car a drove off. We hopped into the truck and followed him.

I barely remember walking into the house and getting ready for bed, I was asleep the moment my head hit the pillow.


	8. Chapter 8

The next day I woke up groggy, not having as much sleep as I normally would, but I still made myself get up and ready for school. When I got downstairs my Dad and Shanna were in the kitchen in silence; none of us were morning people so we stayed out of each others way, mumbling good morning to each other. I made myself a bowl of cereal and sat down to eat it.

Charlie was the first to leave, grumbling a good-bye before shutting the front door behind him and driving off.

I was finishing off my breakfast when I thought back to last night. Shanna had gone over to the 'cult' and spoken to them, more than that, they seemed to recognise her and bowed their heads to show respect. I looked up at Shanna, I was about to ask her about it, but thought twice when I saw the zombie look on her face. I wouldn't be able to get anything coherent, that wasn't laced with growling, from her while she was like this.

I ate the last spoon of cereal, washed my bowl up, picked up my bag and waited for Shanna to finish. When she had, we got into the truck and drove off to school in silence. Shanna spent the whole journey looking out her window, and only turned to me when we had parked.

She gave a big yawn and grinned at me, "What do we have first?"

"Woken up a bit then? I would have thought you were mad at me if I didn't know you better."

She smiled at me, "Good thing you know better. What's first thing today?"

I rolled my eyes at her, "Math, shouldn't be too bad. Though I don't know why you signed us up for so many classes. We don't have a single free period."

"What would you do with a free period anyway?"

I shrugged, "Clean the house for an hour?"

Shanna laughed, "Exactly, might as well be taking full advantage of the education system."

I sighed as we walked down the hall and into the classroom. The teacher, I'd already forgotten her name, explained the activity for ten minutes and told us to work through the questions for the rest of the lesson. Me and Shanna finished twenty minutes before everyone else, so spent the rest of the hour passing little doodles to each other. When the bell rang we were dismissed, so we went to our next classes. The rest of the lessons passed in a similar manner.

At lunch we sat with Jasper and his family. The conversation was kept relaxed and funny, even Rosalie was talking. She didn't look particularly happy about it, but she still joined in. It bought a smile to my face, everything she was doing only showed just how much she cared for Jasper and her family. Though I couldn't decide whether cold, curt sentences were better than cold, curt silence.

Though I did think about the fact that she didn't have to do what she was doing; she could have ignored us, made us leave, or left herself. The fact that she was willing to even try to talk to us meant a lot to me.

Me and Shanna left lunch a little earlier to get to our next class. I was a little reluctant to leave Jasper's side before I had to, but I wanted to ask Shanna about the wolves.

We walked into the classroom, luckily it was empty. We sat in the back corner, I faced Shanna, "So... What was going on yesterday?"

She tilted her head slightly, "What do you mean?"

I raised an eyebrow, "I mean you going over to the werewolf cult."

She shrugged, "I was just saying hi."

I narrowed my eyes at her, "They bowed their heads when you went over; it was like they knew you."

Shanna's eyes glossed over for a few seconds, before she shrugged, "I guess I might as well tell you, it would probably be better for you to know more about the wolves."

She touched her index finger to her chin, pondering. I heard the classroom door open, and went to glare and possibly yell, at those interrupting our conversation. However, I heard Shanna's voice in my mind continuing the conversation. I scolded myself for almost acting rashly.

-Okay, so as you know, I have an affinity with the elements, nature, animals; that sort of thing. I think there is a Quileute story about a woman with those kinds of powers. She was seen as a sort of Goddess type person, and gifted the tribe with the ability to protect themselves by turning into wolves.

-So, they think that you're that woman?

-They think I'm some sort of reincarnation, or descendant or something. They treat me with the same respect as they treated her, it took me years to get the elders to stop bowing when I walked in.

-Are you the reincarnation of her?

-No clue, but I don't think it's really that important. I was telling them to back off from Jake and the others, they were laying it on pretty thick, mainly on Jake.

-Why do they act like that around him? Why do they keep staring? Is it because he's going to be a wolf?

Shanna shook her head.

-They would be doing the same thing with the others if that was the case. It's because his ancestor was the the first werewolf and alpha of the pack. That would make the alpha position Jake's birthright. With vampires back in town, their werewolf genes are activated. Jake will definitely go wolf, and when he does, he will have to make a choice on whether he wants to be the alpha or not. It's surprising that Jake isn't closer to turning wolf, but I think that might be the gentler side of him holding it back. When he gets a huge growth spurt, he'll be really close to phasing.

It was a lot of information to take in. Jake an alpha, and the Quileute youths having to phase into wolves. I thought on it more and my mouth fell open as a realisation hit me.

-Does that mean Embry...

I thought about the growth spurt he'd had, he'd grown so much.

Shanna nodded.

-Embry is close to phasing, he's gone through the growth spurt, and his temperature will continue to increase. Wolves run at a much hotter temperature than humans. It could be to do with the coldness of vampires, but I'm not too sure.

-Do you know how long until he will phase?

-At a guess I would say around a week, two max, for Embry. Maybe a couple of months for the others.

-Others? You mean Quil?

-Yeah, he's a wolf to B. I think he might phase before Jake, but not too much sooner. It's hard to tell, but around that time, we'll probably be told to stay away from them.

-Why?

-Because phasing is caused by a big emotional burst, usually anger, until they can control it. The first shift is unexpected, so they could get angry, and then turn into a wolf, most likely attacking the person who is around them. They wouldn't understand what was happening and attack the one's they love. It's a very difficult time for them, their emotions become stronger, and they become more instinctual.

I thought on it as more students began to walk into the class, followed by the teacher. I turned to the front of the room.

-We can talk about it when we get back to the house if you want?

I nodded and we focused on what the teacher was saying. The rest of the classes, seemed to pass quickly, but that could have been because I wasn't really paying attention. I was too busy thinking about Jake, Quil, and Embry. They were going to be in for a tough time and they didn't even know it.

We wouldn't even be able to be there to help them. Not all the time anyway, I still planned to see them, and judging by how Shanna had phrased it, "told to stay away", that she was planning to as well.

When we finished our classes, I met Shanna by the truck. I looked up at the sky and made a face at the grey sky and light drizzle. As per usual, Shanna was lying on the hood of the truck with her eyes closed, her clothes slowly soaking up the rain.

I nudged her when I got to the truck, shaking the keys at her.

"Let's go."

She sat up, opened her eyes slowly, and yawned. "Okay, think you can drop me home? I need to pick up a few things."

I nodded, "Of course, where are you living?"

"I'll direct you there, it's not too far."

We got into the truck and headed off, Shanna directed me towards her house, it took about 15 minutes to reach it. We got out the truck and I looked up at the house. It was white brick with a red trim and door.

"Nice place."

Shanna smiled, "Yeah, it's pretty nice. A nice elderly lady is sub-letting it to me. She made it pretty cheap."

Shanna opened the door and walked in, I followed after her, looking around the house with curiosity.

Straight ahead was an open door to the kitchen, to the right of the front door were stairs, and to the left was a cream-coloured door. I took a sneak peak at the room. It was a living room. It was average size, with white walls, dark wooden floors and light grey sofas.

It was pretty normal, it looked like a staged room. I didn't know what I expected, Shanna hadn't been staying here for very long, and she didn't really have many personal items, so the house would look pretty bare. I went to explore the rest of the downstairs. There was a small dining room next to the living room with a small wooden table and two chairs, everything else matched the living room. I then went into the kitchen, it was sweet and quaint. The walls were a very pale shade of grey, the floor tiled with big white, ceramic squares, and the cupboards matched the small dining table in the other room.

None of the rooms felt like they had been lived in, least of all by Shanna. It was a nice, cute house that would have given off a similar feeling to a little cottage if it had looked like someone lived here. But it felt a bit cold and empty the way it was now.

I heard Shanna descend the stairs, so I walked out the kitchen to meet her at the bottom step.

She had another rucksack slung over her shoulder, "I've got everything, let's head off."

We headed back out the door and drove back to Charlie's

Charlie's car wasn't in the driveway, but when I walked into I saw that there was a pile of badly folded bedsheets in a messy pile on the sofa.

I chuckled as I walked over to them, there was a note placed on top in Charlie's messy script.

'Hi Bells, I have to pull an all-nighter at the station tonight, but I have the next two days off. There's some money on the table, you and Silvers can order a pizza for tonight.

Love you

P.s. I tried to help with the laundry but too many of those sheets were not made to be folded.'

I laughed again, folded the note, and put it into my pocket.

I then began re-folding the sheets whilst calling to Shanna who had disappeared upstairs, "Charlie left us some money for pizza. What d'you want?"

I heard her reply, "I don't mind, maybe something with pepperoni?"

"Sounds good, I'll order it in a minute."

I finished the folding and rang for pizzas, Charlie had given us enough money for two pizzas, so I ordered extra pepperoni and sweetcorn for Shanna, and chicken with red peppers for me.

When I put the phone down, Shanna came down stairs with fluffy pajamas on, and a towel wrapped around her hair.

I grinned, "Pizza pamper night?"

"Yup, I've got fluffy jammies for you as well, they're on the bed."

I almost ran upstairs to shower and change.

When I came back down the pizzas had arrived and Shanna had gotten two plates and loaded them both up with each pizza.

She looked up at me and grinned, "What film do you wanna watch?"

I shrugged and sat next to her on the sofa, getting comfy. "You choose."

We ended up watching a mixture of romcoms, thrillers, and animated films for children.

We barely spoke for the evening, but it was nice and relaxing. We ended up falling asleep curled up on the sofa.

The next few days passed in a similar manner, I'd occasionally see Charlie in the mornings, go to school with Shanna, and sit with Jasper and his family at lunch; then in the evenings I'd relax with Shanna and maybe see Charlie come in and go to bed.

It was the weekend, Charlie was away working again, and Shanna was still sleeping. I looked at the clock, 12.27. I sighed, the TV was on but I didn't have the attention span to keep watching. When my boredom peaked, I had decided to wake Shanna up, but before I could move from the sofa; my phone buzzed.

The message was from Jasper, I felt my face heat up as I read the message.

Hi Bella, I was wondering if you were doing anything today. I was hoping you might want to meet up? Maybe get some food? Just me and you?

My heartbeat sped up and I felt my stomach turn with nervousness.

I ran upstairs to my room and jumped on Shanna.

She gasped, jumping up, and looking around. When she saw it was me, her eyes narrowed, and she lay back down in bed turning over. She pulled the duvet over her head.

I lay down next to her, on top of the duvet and decided to just talk to her anyway. "Jasper messaged me, I think he's asking me out. Well, he asked if I wanted to go out for food, but I think it's a date."

There was no response from Shanna.

"What should I reply?"

Shanna shifted and removed the duvet covering her face.

She turned to me and closed her eyes. "Obviously yes."

I nudged her, "I obviously want to meet him but I'm nervous, I don't know how to write the message."

"Write yes? You overthink way too much."

"Like you're any better."

She didn't respond.

I poked her, "What do I type?"

Shanna yawned, "'Sure, that sounds great. When do you want to meet?'"

I nodded and sent it, a few moments later my phone buzzed, Great! How about I come by yours and pick you up in about an hour?

I replied, Okay, see you then

I grinned to myself, "I'm going on a date with Jasper."

Shanna still didn't reply.

I poked her again, "Come on be excited for me."

Shanna opened one droopy eye, "I am excited, I'm just sleepy as well."

I gave her a droll look.

"Fine, I'm getting up. I'll help you get ready, just let me wake up first."

I smiled and thought about my date with Jasper..

After about five minutes, Shanna rolled out of bed and walked to the closet.

She yawned as she pulled out some clothes for me to wear.

She put them on the end of the bed.

"Okay, do you want fancy, casual, or fancy casual. I don't really know any other kind of style."

"I don't know, I'm not sure where we're going or how he's going to dress. What do you think?"

Shanna thought for a second, "I think part casual, and part revealing."

I laughed, "That wasn't one of your options."

She waved her hand at me dismissively, "Okay, so here are some choices."

I looked at the clothes she had put on the bed; there were three different outfits.

The first was a plain black tank top and dark blue jeans. The second, was a green plaid shirt, a black crop top that went to just above my belly button and black jeans.

And the third was a lacy black top, and a black skater skirt.

I immediately reached for the first outfit, but Shanna stopped me before my hand touched the fabric.

"I don't think so Bells. I put that out so that there was a third option, but you're not going that casual, it's a date."

She rolled her eyes at me, "I may be clueless about most things to do with dates and romance crap, but I've seen enough movies to know that you don't choose the plain outfit."

I rolled my eyes, "Well, you know I'm not gonna wear the skirt, I don't even know where that came from, or the tops, so I guess option two."

She smiled, "I snuck it in the first day you were here, thought it would be worth a shot. Option two is the best, a mixture between hot and casual."

I sighed, "But it's a crop top."

Shanna looked at me steadily for a few seconds, before putting her hand on my shoulder, "Bells, Jasper isn't going to care about your scars. That I can promise you, your scars only show how strong you are, they reflect your badass bitch personality. Wear them with pride, most people wouldn't be able to survive and remain strong if they had to go what you went through. Be proud of who you are and what you've accomplished."

I nodded, but the frown didn't leave my face, Shanna gave me a small smile, "I thought you might feel uncomfortable in it. The shirt covers your back, and the crop top goes low enough to cover the scars on your stomach."

I smiled and jumped up to hug her.

"Thanks Shanna."

"Anytime, now go get ready."

She pushed the clothes into my arms and shooed me towards the bathroom.

When I was dressed, I looked myself in the mirror, I was mainly checking whether any of my scars were showing, they weren't but I still attempted to pull the top down, hoping it would stretch to cover more of my stomach.

After about five minutes of this I gave up and went downstairs.

Shanna was waiting for me, laid out on the sofa, draped in blankets.

She looked up as I entered. "You look good Bells, Jasper's gonna lose it."

She chuckled, "I love seeing vampires at a loss for words. They can be so damn smug around humans."

I raised an eyebrow, "How many vampires do you know?"

She grinned, "Enough."

I rolled my eyes at her cryptic answers, and didn't bother entertaining her more by trying to ask again. She was way too annoying for her own good.

I checked the time, there were about 20 minutes more until Jasper arrived.

I sat down and began tapping my leg with impatience.

I heard Shanna sigh, "Bells relax, you eat together all the time. Be your usual self, if anyone should be scared it's the vampire infatuated with a human. Hmmm... Something doesn't sound right about that sentence."

I laughed, "I know what you meant. It just feels different to how it normally is, like something might happen."

She smiled, "Looks like you're getting a sixth sense of your own."

I groaned, "Does that mean something's going to happen?"

Shanna shrugged, I narrowed my eyes at her.

She put her hands up in surrender, "I swear, I don't know."

"Fine, I believe you. Are you sure I look alright?"

She raised an eyebrow at me, "Of course, I chose the outfit. Jasper's gonna lose it."

I felt my face heat up, Shanna laughed at my uncomfortable expression, "You don't see how much you affect him, but I sure as hell can, I'm sure his family can to."

I gave a small smile; knowing that I affected Jasper as much as he affected me, made my chest warm with happiness, and caused the butterflies in my stomach to calm down ever so slightly.

I looked back at Shanna, her eyes were glazed over. She was mid vision, I felt the worry well up inside me; was something bad going to happen?

Shanna took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut, as she adjusted to being back in the present.

"What did you see?" I asked, worry causing my voice to shake slightly, as I continually imagined increasingly worse scenarios.

Shanna shook her head, "No need to worry Bells, it wasn't anything serious, just mundane stuff. Jasper's gonna be here like ten minutes early, the shop doesn't have any lemonade left, and it's gonna be sunny soon."

I laughed at her annoyed expression, but suppressed it when Shanna glared at me, "Sorry, it's just funny to know that your visions annoy you just as much as you annoy me."

She rolled her eyes at me, "That's fair, but it's so disorienting to have visions like that, especially when it's about dumb stuff."

I covered my mouth to hide a laugh, it didn't work. Shanna made a face at me and lay back down on the sofa.

I pulled my phone out to check the time, according to Shanna's vision, Jasper should be arriving in a few minutes. I took some deep breaths to calm myself down, but it only seemed to make me more nervous.

I felt calm seep into me, and I knew it was from Shanna, "Thanks."

"No worries, I just don't want you to have a heart attack before going out with Jasper."

I threw a cushion at her.

"Hey, I've been helpful today, I didn't deserve that."

"Maybe not now, but I'm sure you'll do something to deserve it."

She opened her mouth to refute me, but thought twice, "I can't argue with that."

I laughed at her, as I heard the smooth sounds of a ridiculously expensive car stop outside the house, I felt the calm seeping into me increase, and smiled at Shanna.

After a few moments, there was a quiet knock on the door, I smiled and jumped up to answer the door.

Jasper was looking as hot as ever. He was wearing a light blue button up shirt, back jeans and brown boots. He stared at me in silence for a moment, looking me up and down, his mouth was moving as if he was saying something, but no sound came from his mouth.

Shanna laughed from the sofa, the sound of her laughter seemed to break Jasper's trance. He looked at me bashfully, and ran a hand through his golden locks,

"Sorry, I... You..."

I had to admit that I liked seeing Jasper this flustered, but before I could say anything, Shanna started a new round of laughter, her breathing uneven as she attempted to catch her breath.

I turned to glare at her but she was to busy laughing to notice. I turned back to Jasper to apologise, but saw a big smirk on his face.

"You look gorgeous Darlin', being laughed at is a small price to pay for seeing you. I'm a little early, I hope that's okay?"

My heartbeat sped up, and my face flushed red, only serving as a catalyst for Shanna's gasping laughter.

Jasper smiled, "Shall we?"

I nodded, "See you later Shanna."

She didn't reply, but the sounds of her laughter continued until I shut the door, and walked towards Jasper's car.

He opened the passenger door for me, and I hopped inside, melting into the ultra comfortable seat.

Jasper walked around to the other side, jumped in, and drove off.

After about 5 minutes of driving in comfortable silence, I spoke, "So, where are we going?"

Jasper smiled, "It's a little place in Port Angeles, Esme recommended it, I'm not too great at restaurants."

"I'm sure it'll be great."

"It's an Italian restaurant, Esme said they serve the biggest selection of pastas."

I laughed, "It sounds good, I trust Esme's judgement."

"But you don't trust mine?"

I rolled my eyes at him, "Now don't go getting all upset, I just know that you would probably eat a rock with the same enthusiasm as fancy restaurant food."

Jasper chuckled, "You've got me there, I really don't appreciate fine dining."

The rest of the journey consisted of the same sort of chat, I asked after his family, he asked after mine, and we discussed school work.

By the time we reached the restaurant we were deep into a conversation about war tactics.

Jasper parked the car and turned to me to continue the conversation, "But that tactic would only work as well in theory, there are way to many factors for it to be as effective as when written in a book."

I shook my head, "No way, putting it into practice is difficult, but if you have smaller teams of around six people, and you have a strong command and communication, then it wouldn't be too difficult, and it's effective against varying attacks with minimal adaption. It has to be one of the best counter-attack tactics for smaller armies."

"Maybe in more recent years with the growth in technology, but during the Civil war if the Confederate army employed that technique, it would have failed miserably."

I nodded in agreement, "Yes, of course. But we're not talking about the Civil War in particular, just the feasibility of this tactic succeeding. The Civil war isn't too great of an example. While tactics are very important, I don't really think that there was a tactic that could have won the Confederate army the war."

Jasper frowned at me.

"It was a huge debate and war over the worth of another human. Those fighting for the rights of those people, knew with every part of their being that what they were doing was right. No matter what, no one would have stopped fighting for freedom. Full conviction is a very powerful thing. It makes someone continue to fight over and over, never giving up. I think that can end up being stronger than any specific tactic because then it becomes a battle of wills. If there is any slight doubt that what you're fighting for isn't worth it, then you've already lost. Stamina has a huge part to play."

Jasper was nodding with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"I agree with that, but when in the heat of war, with the planning, training, and pure terror, I think many people lose sight of what is actually being fought for. You would run on fear, and survival instinct. It would often depend purely on where you live for what you fight for. Many people in the confederate army didn't truly believe in what they were fighting for, you were brainwashed from young, enlisted as a youth, and handed a gun. You fought beside the people you lived with, you never really thought about the war as a whole, you would consider you and a fellow comrade getting out alive as a victory... Or so I've heard. I read a book about it."

Jasper awkwardly rounded off his speech. I smothered a grin at his lame attempt at a cover up. He had clearly fought in the war, and by what he said, I could assume that he fought in the Confederate army.

Jasper changed the subject, "As amazing as your knowledge is, and how interesting it is to talk to you about war tactics, I think we should probably go in to eat. You must be starving."

As if on cue, my stomach grumbled loudly.

Jasper laughed, got out, walked around the car, and opened the door for me, "Shall we?"

I smiled and stepped out, we walked towards the front doors, on the way Jasper's hand brushed against mine.

The moment of contact felt like an electric shock, but wasn't as surprising as when I felt him lightly grip my hand, our fingers intertwining. I blushed bright red, and looked up at him. He was looking straight ahead with a grin on his face.

We walked into the restaurant and waited on the side to be seated. Most of the people in the building turned to eye Jasper up from the moment he walked in.

I couldn't blame them, he looked incredible, but as the perky, blond waitress bounced up to us with a sultry smile on her lips, looking Jasper up and down, I wished for fewer people to find him attractive.

The waitress attempted to ignore my presence as she lead us to our table.

"Here is your table Sir."

As we sat down she handed the menus to Jasper, doing her best to push her boobs up and entice him. Jasper completely ignored her, choosing to only look at me. The waitress made a face and tried again.

"I hope you and your sister like the table Sir. I'm Kim and I'll be your server, Let me know if you want anything from me."

I almost gagged at her emphasis on 'anything'.

Jasper spoke without looking away, "She's not my sister, she's my girlfriend, and we'll have a Coke and a water."

Kim shot a look at me before nodding and walking away, clearly annoyed at my presence.

I remained staring at Jasper. He called me his girlfriend. Am I his girlfriend? Are we dating? The thoughts and questions swirled continuously through my head.

Jasper seemed to sense my thoughts and smiled bashfully, "Sorry I said that, she wasn't leaving and she was clearly..."

He stopped.

I nodded, "It's fine, it must happen all the time."

Jasper frowned, "Every now and then. It's pretty annoying... But I just blurted that out, sorry."

I shook my head, "Don't worry about it, I didn't think anything of it."

Jasper fidgeted, "I think I said it because it was on my mind."

I frowned in confusion and tilted my head slightly, "What do you mean?"

Jasper smiled at me, looking into my eyes, "I mean, I wanted to ask you if you wanted to be my girlfriend, I really like you, and it would be nice to go out with you, and hold your hand and stuff... but if you don't want to I understand, I just thought-"

I interrupted his stream on nonsense, "You want me to be your girlfriend?"

He nodded, "But if you don't-"

I cut him off again, "I do want to."

A big, dazzling smile lit up Jasper's face, "Great, that's great."

There was a moment of awkward silence.

I laughed at his awkwardness, I never expected to see an uncertain Jasper.

He stuck his tongue out at me, "Stop laughing at me, I'm not very good at this sort of stuff."

I chuckled again, "It's just so strange seeing you get this awkward and flustered."

"Well, it's strange for me as well. You're the only one who's ever made me into a stammering mess."

"Really?"

He nodded, "I've never done anything like this. I was hoping to make it somewhat more romantic, but I guess I couldn't stop myself from blurting it out"

"I would have thought you'd have had a lot of girlfriends, with a pretty face like yours."

He laughed, "I've actually never had a girlfriend."

I laughed, "Wait, really?"

"Is that so surprising?"

I nodded, "Well, yeah. Have you met you?"

"I think you're thinking too highly of me."

There were a few moments of silence.

I could feel that my face was bright red. Should I have agreed so quickly? It felt so right, and natural to say yes. Especially with how nervous he was.

I smiled, not sure what to say.

"So you're my girlfriend." He stated.

"Yup, that seems to be the case." I laughed, "We're both so good at this, right?"

"Yeah, definitely." He chuckled.

"So you're really into your history then?"

He cleared his throat and nodded, "It's a little hobby of mine I guess, what about you? You really know a lot about history and war tactics. It's pretty impressive."

"It's pretty interesting, me and Shanna used to do lots of different classes and courses over the years. We did fighting tactics as a part of one of the courses. It was really interesting so I found out more about them."

We continued to talk about different eras, I doubted Jasper realised how in depth he was going, if I didn't know that he had probably lived through what he was talking about, I would have assumed he was a historian.

We were interrupted by the waitress coming back with our drinks.

She tried to flirt again, she addressed Jasper, "Have you decided what you would like to eat?"

Jasper just looked at me, I hadn't even looked at the menu. Jasper smiled and ordered for us.

"We'll have the spinach lasagne, and a spaghetti Bolognese." He handed her the menus without looking at her. She scrunched her nose in frustration, before walking off to sort our order.

"I think you hurt her feelings."

He blinked, "Who?"

I grinned, "The waitress."

"Oh, yeah. I was a little distracted. I don't want to be cruel, but I'm not going to humour her, and I can't stop looking at you."

I blushed again, and covered my face with my hands.

"Too much?"

I looked up at him and smiled, "I'm just not used to this, I don't really know how to act or react."

He smiled gently, and reached over the table to pull my hand away from my face. "Be yourself, remember I like who that is."

My brain went blank, before He likes me, played on repeat in my head. He likes me? Why does he like me? I'm his girlfriend, his girlfriend!

He looked at me, "You look like you're screaming in your head."

"Huh?"

"You always get this look on your face when your shocked, or unsure. You look really calm on the outside, but I can tell you're freaking out on the inside."

I shot him a small smile, "Sorry, it's a lot to take in."

"Don't be sorry, it's cute. I like trying to figure out what's going on in your head. You can be so difficult to read."

I smiled, "That's the idea, I'm super mysterious, dark and brooding."

He laughed, "I like it, but I definitely want to try and get behind the walls you've built up."

I smiled, "Right back at you, I may have built up walls, but you seem to have a whole army to protect you."

"Rough pasts cause you to find ways to protect yourself."

The conversation didn't seem so fun anymore, I looked down.

Jasper leaned back, "So, how long have you and Shanna known each other. It kinda feels like you guys are twins."

I smiled, "We've pretty much known each other from the moment we were born. Our parents were friends, she moved around a lot, but often ended up living in the same place."

We continued to talk about our families, hobbies, and interests. I barely noticed when the waitress bought our food, I inhaled it, as Jasper managed to make it look like he was eating.

We held hands over the table while we were talking. Al my nerves had gone, it felt so natural to talk to Jasper.

The waitress came over with the bill, she had a smug smile on her face as she put the folder on the table.

I rolled my eyes, it was obvious that she had slipped some sort of note for Jasper in.

I smiled as a cruel thought crossed my mind, Jasper pulled out some notes and put them on the table without touching the bill. I had other plans, I reached forward and picked up the bill opening the folder to read it.

A small note with the waitresses name and number fell out.

She started to turn red as I picked up the note and read it. I looked up at her and smiled.

"I think you accidentally dropped this in the bill. Wouldn't want anyone to think that you're trying to hit on my boyfriend."

Pure embarrassment was on her face as she snatched the note from me and rushed away into the kitchen.

Jasper looked at me and raised an eyebrow.

I looked at him innocently, "What's wrong?"

He smiled, "Nothing, I just really like you calling me your boyfriend, you also seemed to channel Shanna."

I laughed, "She tends to rub off on me sometimes." I was pretty shocked with myself as well, I had a sudden burst of confidence, which now began to fade.

"Do you think I should apologise?"

Jasper shook his head, "She's the one who tried to hit on your boyfriend."

He winked at me, and I melted under his gaze.

We got back into his car and drove off, we continued to chat on the way back to Forks.

When we pulled up outside the house, Jasper got out to walk me to the door.

I got nervous again when we reached the door. It was already dark, we had managed to stay out for hours.

Jasper just smiled, brushed my hair behind my ear and leaned in. His lips only brushed against mine for a few seconds, but the electricity that passed between us continued after he had already said 'bye' and driven away.

I walked into the house and leaned against the door with a huge smile on my face.

I hadn't felt like this before, but it all felt right. It was enough to momentarily block out my fears, I floated on a cloud as I went upstairs to get ready for bed.

I felt like a piece of my soul had been returned to me. I had to do my best not to let it go.


End file.
